


Happily Ever Afters: The Abduxuel Sides

by TheBeingOfEverything



Series: Briar Rose Syndrome [2]
Category: Ao no Exorcist | Blue Exorcist
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Demon Sex, Grief/Mourning, Improper Use of a Rosary, M/M, Minor blasphemy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-12
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:46:56
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 42,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24684808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBeingOfEverything/pseuds/TheBeingOfEverything
Summary: What is dead may never die, or something like that.After the happily ever afters comes the difficult task of navigating a brand new timeline Mephisto never expected to come to pass.The curse was lifted, the heroes made it home, but there’s one ghost of the past that was never fully put to rest.Sequel fic to Briar Rose Syndrome
Relationships: Amaimon (Ao no Exorcist)/Original Character(s), Amaimon/Mephisto Pheles, Amaimon/Mephisto Pheles/Okumura Rin/Original Character(s), Amaimon/Okumura Rin, Amaimon/Okumura Rin/Mephisto Pheles, Mephisto Pheles/Original Character(s), Okumura Rin/Mephisto Pheles, Okumura Rin/Original Character(s)
Series: Briar Rose Syndrome [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1784722
Comments: 68
Kudos: 105





	1. Absinthe Dreams

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So like, I hurt my own heart with this made up OC that was just supposed to be a plot device for Briar Rose Syndrome to give me another king I could curse/kill off without messing with the actual kings so the aoex series plot made sense still.
> 
> I guess he now gets his own mini collection of sides where I can get all those feelings out lololol
> 
> Enjoy the Abduxuel sides, aka Rin gets 3 baes for the price of one epic quest~
> 
> Song of the Chapter:
> 
> Hanging in a Void by Barcelona
> 
> Reminder I run a small, open-ship discord server for aoex anyone is welcome to join!: https://discord.gg/sAhbKby

“You know, it would have been his favorite drink, had he made it back from that final trip to Gehenna.”

Rin watched as Mephisto swirled a deep green liquid in a small glass. They leaned on the railing to the large balcony outside of Mephisto’s bedroom where Rin had found him alone when he’d woken in the middle of the night.

Not that Rin did much sleeping nowadays after he’d broken his sword in Gehenna.

The slight breeze cast strands of his hair across the small horns usually hidden beneath his shaggy white fringe, but Rin barely noticed, caught in the surreal mood surrounding Mephisto.

“I could see it,” a laugh that sounded too forced in the quiet night, “and then I couldn’t, when he was cursed. And I knew then that he would die.”

Mephisto tossed the remainder back in one smooth motion, but returned to contemplating the glass in his hand.

“It took me four years before I couldn’t fight that future anymore.”

Four years wasn’t even long in human terms, much less to an immortal demon king of time. Rin tried to imagine losing Yukio in that span and couldn’t, unable to think about what he would do in Mephisto’s situation.

“Such a short time, in the scheme of things,” Mephisto finally looked fully at Rin, expression void of anything definable, almost like the mask of sleep he’d worn in the week he’d been cursed, “but I couldn’t keep two bodies from decaying for any longer than that.”

There wasn’t anything Rin could say. He hadn’t even been alive the two hundred years ago it had all happened.

So, he stepped the rest of the way to Mephisto's side and leaned against him in silence.

“Come,” Mephisto said some time later, startling Rin into blinking up at him as he smiled in a faint quirk of his lips, “Amaimon is likely awake now and raiding my kitchen.”

“Dammit, he’d better not eat the ingredients I was saving for dinner tonight,” Rin grumbled, already moving to head off disaster while Mephisto chuckled and followed behind.

* * *

The bell rang, signalling the warning to make it to the next class or be late. Rin ignored a slew of looks from the other students, having grown used to them and knowing they would probably follow him forever with his transformation.

Not that the students without mashous could even see his horns, claws, or slit pupils, but they could definitely see his white hair.

Or that had mostly been the case, except the barrier between Assiah and Gehenna had dropped, so not only were the exorcists around the world busier than ever putting out fires and calming the panicked masses, but more and more people could see the demonic features he didn’t care to hide.

It meant Rin had to deal with a path clearing wherever he walked nowadays, though that might have had something to do with the menacing aura Amaimon wore.

Sighing, Rin sent a sideways glance to Amaimon where he walked with an apathetic glare that scattered other students before they even consciously registered his presence. A raised brow met his sigh, so Rin explained, “I hate this class, the teacher’s so boring. Who even needs demon history?”

Amaimon scoffed and ate another handful of the chips he was working his way through.

“Who cares about any of them?”

Ok, Rin should have expected that answer from Amaimon. He felt better anyway, laughing.

A long silence pricked Rin’s attention and eventually pulled his gaze to see shuttered gold eyes staring at the chip bag with a strange look that made Rin frown.

The bag vanished in a motion of Amaimon’s hands, smoke clearing around the claws he pressed to his fingertips with an absence of something to hold.

He’d slowed, and Rin fell back with him, frown deepening as he started to ask what was wrong.

“When I was bored,” Amaimon said like he’d fallen into a memory, faraway and voice drifting from his lips, “I knew all I had to do was find Abduxuel.”

Oh. Rin slowed further, getting a slow blink from Amaimon like he’d finally noticed Rin waiting for him to continue.

His hands fell to his sides, thumbs rubbing to his fingers in that familiar fidget Rin had come to recognize.

“I would get stuck, fights would get boring. I'd stagnate.” Rin could imagine the centuries passing like that for Amaimon, a string of fights, chasing the high battle brought, and each moment between becoming harder and harder to exist in.

Amaimon stopped then, staring at the floor, before his head rose in a slow, creaking motion. His expression looked lost to Rin, like he didn’t know what to do with what he’d revealed now that he’d said it aloud. “And then he would take me to some new place I had never seen before and I wouldn’t be bored anymore.”

Rin didn’t know what to say for Amaimon that could make him less lost, but he did know what he could do, at least.

“Hey,” he said, smiling and cocking a thumb over his shoulder, “let’s skip class for the day and go play.”

Light returned to Amaimon’s eyes and Rin could see he’d come back to the present.

“You can teach me more fighting stuff,” he continued, excitement creeping into his voice now that he’d thought of the idea. “You promised we would after we made it home, remember?”

“Yes!” Amaimon cheered as he raised a hand, his other coming to clasp Rin’s just as he snapped to take them from the school.

Yukio might be pissed when he learned Rin had skipped for the day, but this was more important, anyway.

* * *

“Ach!” Mephisto growled from his seat in front of a projector screen.

Rin hummed, glancing to see a scowl on Mephisto’s face and a teary-eyed anime girl from the newest dating sim game he had up.

“Of course, I should have known Sayaka would prefer a more straightforward compliment.” The mutters from Mephisto had Rin quirking a grin as he kept his focus on not getting killed in the shooter game he’d loaded for himself on another screen.

“Well yeah, Mephisto,” he said, then grumbled when a headshot took him down and he had to wait for the respawn, turning to Mephisto again and explaining, “She’s a sisterly type, so she’d like the straightforward options.”

A raised brow answered him before Mephisto huffed a laugh and Rin went back to the game.

“I play more of these games than you’ve seen in your life and yet you’ve managed to break the mechanics down to something so simple.” Mephisto clicked the straightforward option after he’d reset the save file and got a delighted grin from Sayaka, animated hearts rising on the screen.

That made Rin snicker. “You sure it’s not just you picking the answer you’d want to hear?”

When Rin noticed the sounds that went with the cartoon hearts hadn’t faded, his brows drew and he realized Mephisto had frozen, staring at the screen.

Had he said something weird? Rin tried to understand where the strange mood might have come from, but couldn’t and took himself from the match to focus on Mephisto.

“What-” Rin began, only for Mephisto to blink out of his stupor, fingers tracing over the controller in his hands in absent patterns.

“Demons are inherently selfish creatures,” Mephisto said, falling into the melancholy Rin noticed only arose when he talked about one very specific topic. “We aren’t formed with the empathy that comes naturally to most humans.”

Something Rin had learned more about with every meeting he'd had with the other ba'al and culminated in his second clash with Satan in Gehenna. He'd seen the strange bonds they had with each other and the way they contrasted with Satan, who couldn't seem to think beyond his next impulse.

"I was selfish, I am." Mephisto finally looked at Rin, expression almost pleading, as if Rin would have an easy answer for him. "But I can't understand any other way to be."

That Mephisto had come far enough to recognize it in himself was still groundbreaking as far as Rin was concerned. Self reflection was hard enough for Rin, let alone a full demon with his own nature working against him from the start.

He stood and walked to stand behind Mephisto, feeling him stiffen when Rin put his hands in his hair and began to brush it, heat concentrated into his fingertips he massaged through the strands.

After a long moment, Mephisto relaxed into the repetitive touch and went back to his game.

* * *

A round shape launched itself at Rin's face with a snarl.

Rin slid to the side just as it reached him, grabbing a viciously clawed hand and flinging it into the air.

Amaimon caught his Behemoth and laughed, tossing it above his head once before spinning to throw it back to Rin.

It was the most baffling game of catch Rin had ever played and also the most fun one.

They'd had to come at night to the field because Mephisto didn't want them causing a scene when they played. Then Amaimon had reintroduced Rin to the demon he remembered getting attacked by during the forest fight that felt so long ago.

Behemoth was kinda cute, now that Rin wasn't racing to save Shiemi from Amaimon's clutches. He'd always wanted a pet dog, and Amaimon’s hobgoblin was probably the closest he would get.

He grinned and caught the Behemoth-shaped comet Amaimon flung towards him, continuing the game.

Later, once they'd worn themselves out with the game of catch, Rin flopped back to the ground besides Amaimon, sighing in contentment.

Next time he would bring Kuro, but his cait sidhe familiar had been spending time with Yukio for the week and Rin wasn't about to wake him up in the middle of the night just to invite Kuro to play.

Not after the last time he'd tried and gotten a gun pointed in his face from a sleep deprived Yukio after he'd startled him awake, at least.

Snores already came from Behemoth, having fallen asleep the moment they’d settled. The steady sounds filled the clearing as Rin’s panting breaths faded and he got comfortable next to Amaimon.

They lay in silence, Rin’s head nudged to Amaimon’s shoulder and Amaimon with his hands folded to his stomach.

Overhead, stars made it through the widening breaks in the clouds until Rin could see them clearly.

Closing his eyes let Rin concentrate on another light, the glow of their claim bond a soft presence he liked to run his aspect over whenever he noticed it. Doing it now made Amaimon shiver and tilt his head to Rin’s.

“When you do that, I can feel it,” Amaimon said as Rin blinked his eyes open.

“What, really?” Rin had definitely not known that, an embarrassed flush rising to his cheeks that he’d been feeling Amaimon and Mephisto up randomly throughout the week and neither had seen the need to clue him in.

“You guys could have told me sooner,” he grumbled, though it was half-hearted. It wasn’t like he wouldn’t still do it when the mood struck, in the same way he liked to brush against them to enjoy the way their scents mingled with his.

“Hmm,” came the non-committal hum, then Rin flinched as he felt a return sensation ripple over him like a wave of static and realized Amaimon had returned the touch.

He laughed, partly in disbelief, and partly that he had someone who was his for an eternity, or however long they’d live for. “I can’t believe this is my life now. I still barely understand claims or anything about demons.”

A heartbeat stuttering drew Rin’s attention to Amaimon as it smoothed out again. He waited, knowing he’d stumbled upon another moment he was beginning to recognize the more they happened. Was it the claim thing? Rin went back over the last minute while Amaimon chewed at the inside of his cheeks before speaking.

“What you accomplished,” Amaimon said, a murmur that just reached above the soft snuffles from Behemoth and quieted Rin further, “was impossible- or what I thought was impossible.”

That again. Rin’s chest squeezed at remembering the terrified way Amaimon had looked at him, at Mephisto, the day they’d broken the curse. His apathy had torn apart to reveal the fear beneath it, that his use to them had ended with Mephisto's waking. All because Amaimon couldn’t comprehend them not caring about the unspoken hierarchy that governed demons and it somehow meant he wasn’t strong enough to be a part of their claim bond.

Which was bullshit and Rin had made it clear in as many ways as he could, many times.

"I used to watch them," Amaimon kept speaking, gaze turned to the stars that reflected on the faint inner light from his eyes, "their claim."

The only claim Rin knew that Amaimon might be talking about was…

“And I wanted to be a part of it,” his breath shuddered out, “so badly it ached.”

Oh. Rin’s mood plummeted, aching with Amaimon at the thought of him sitting by, desperate for something he thought he could never have.

He had Rin and Mephisto, but that wasn't what was causing the current tangle of emotion in Amaimon just then.

There wasn't anything Rin could do about the past for Amaimon even if he wanted to.

"Then he was gone and I knew it would never happen," Amaimon sounded utterly emotionless, despite the subject, his face void of anything definable. Except he'd begun those same tears he'd silently pressed to Rin's hair when he'd thought he had failed them both.

Rin wasn't sure if Amaimon even realized.

"Why would Samael look at me when he'd had Abduxuel?"

When he'd had Rin, too, Rin remembered. Amaimon had been so sure that it was just Rin's kiss that had broken the curse, that it was only natural. Rin's power made him a true match for Mephisto, and Mephisto for Rin, something Amaimon could never hope to compete against.

A growl fought in his chest, furious without a target. There wasn't a physical enemy to fight, just Amaimon, blinking up at the stars like they held the answers.

In his mind's eye, the shape of their claim remained a steady glow. Rin curled more against Amaimon and let a gradual bit of his aspect out to unfurl along the bond.

After a moment, Amaimon came back to himself, and Rin felt a return touch, knowing he could speak again.

"I love you." And, "You're mine."

Possession for the demon, and comfort for the strange piece of humanity that had grown in Amaimon.

He couldn't keep the past from hurting, couldn't bring the dead back, but he could keep Amaimon in the present and give him the future to look forward to.

* * *

Two blank stares met his words.

Rin crossed his arms and waited.

"Well I," Mephisto said, breaking off and frowning before trying again, "you see- hm."

"What's the point?" Amaimon cut in with genuine confusion drawing his brows together

A sigh huffed out of Rin, wry smile forming as he prepared to walk them through the problem.

"You guys went this whole time not letting yourselves grieve and ignoring what happened," and then made him unwitting counselor to centuries of demonic issues.

While it was amazing to have their trust and vulnerability, Rin had realized there wasn't a whole lot he could do besides hear them out.

In the same way he'd had to come to terms with Shiro's death, they had to do the same, he knew that much. So, the next step he could think of was, "Making a spot for him will let you guys- uh, wait, I know there's a phrase for this- you know, put him to rest, make peace, give you a, uh…"

"A sense of closure?" Mephisto finished for him, though it was said in a questioning tone as if he was still stuck on the concept Rin was trying to get across.

“Yeah, that!” Rin nodded, gesturing to the yard surrounding Mephisto’s property. “So, pick a spot and make something for him.”

Birds chirped and cicadas buzzed, the only response he got.

Twin expressions of bafflement met before returning to Rin.

“What should we make for him?” Amaimon said after Rin waited them out. The question sent more amusement through Rin as he shifted to prop a fist on his hip.

Even Mephisto seemed stumped, so Rin helped. “What’s something you associate with him? Anything that makes you think of him would work so when you see it, it’s a reminder.”

“...Space?” Amaimon ventured, looking to Mephisto as if checking to see if he thought it was okay.

“Sure!” Rin said, trying to aim for encouragement and hiding the snicker bubbling in his chest. He knew it was more serious than that, and if he never had to see Amaimon crying again or the deep melancholy Mephisto fell into in the early hours before his masks went up, then it would be too soon. Still, “If that reminds you of him and you can find a way to make something representing that, then-”

“His heart.”

Rin stopped talking, gaze jerking to Mephisto at his sudden words and trying to connect the meaning. It came to him and his smile softened at the carefully steady look appraising him from green eyes.

“Yeah, that’s a good one,” he said, voice low.

"Or…" Mephisto frowned, gaze going inward in thought.

Amaimon had quieted too, fingers twitching like he wanted to fidget, as Mephisto snapped and brought out a coin-sized, nearly transparent green stone set in some kind of metal circle, the branches coming around it in a protective cage. Rin peered closer. Jewelry?

“What’s that?”

“A gem the humans call moldavite,” Mephisto said, thumb brushing over the surface and fixated on it. “It’s a fragile thing, brittle and easily broken. But it fell from space with an asteroid and the color reminded us of his eyes. It was a joke, a piece of irony that he liked to wear. Then, when he vanished from existence, his things became mine, and I have this now.”

His eyes? Rin’s gaze flicked to the green of Mephisto’s and back to the gem, the colors nearly the same.

"Good," he said instead of questioning it, "so, I'll let you guys get to it and start making lunch. Ok?"

A soft goodbye from Mephisto and an acknowledging sound from Amaimon trailed after him as he left them to their closure.

* * *

The phenomena known as Rin left them, then it was just Mephisto and Amaimon standing in his courtyard over a piece of material that would soon become a memorial for his other half.

“He’s so human,” Amaimon said, though without the derogatory inflection that would have coated it in reference to anyone else.

“Given the way we’ve been acting, I don’t think we have much room to speak,” Mephisto said with his own snort of disbelief.

It was true, in a baffling way, and he couldn't imagine the creature he was before the curse understanding him as he was now. He didn't have the human creativity to conceptualize it, could only accept that he had changed.

This thing he had changed into had strange motivations and ambitions he had been learning every new moment.

Whether Rin's suggestion regarding his other half would settle his mind- let alone Amaimon's- remained to be seen.

"What should we make?" Amaimon's quiet question drew him from hypotheticals, seeing Amaimon chewing one of his claws and gaze pinned to the pendant containing the moldavite.

Right, he had to think about this logically.

"We'll have to make something that will protect it from the elements," he said, humming as he considered the most optimal way to display the piece of Abduxuel he held.

An answering hum from Amaimon, his look turning contemplative, murmuring to himself, "Somewhere out of the sun, covered but still visible, no humidity…"

Mephisto wanted to laugh at the measures. It seemed, if it were up to Amaimon, the gem would be sent straight back to the space they hid things, safe from any conceivable harm.

He was right, though. Mephisto cast an eye around his property, considering the best placement.

Perhaps…

"Over there, in sight of my office." He directed Amaimon's attention to the raised pond beneath one of the cherry blossom trees he'd had planted for the cultural aesthetic. The koi swimming beneath the tree were nearing their two-hundredth year.

"I can make a glass bubble around it," Amaimon said, already snapping and bringing a pile of sand from the ether to start shaping it, the gleam in the sunlight reflecting off the area.

"Since we're going with a space theme, I suppose a meteorite base would suffice?" Even saying it out loud sent humor curling inside Mephisto at the near ritualism of what they were doing.

Amaimon already moved to bring out another dark material that would become the pedestal of the monument.

The gleam from the surface drew Mephisto in, watching in silence as Amaimon shaped the pedastle with one hand and continued the glass sphere with the other.

Was this a form of creation? How close were they to humans in this moment? The concept took him in, and Mephisto played with it in his mind, Amaimon's work nearly meditative as he fell into the rhythm of formation.

Soon, a black obelisk stood under the branches of the tree, a lone pillar with a base Amaimon settled the glass sphere into, and, in a final sweep of his hand, affixed the two together. Mephisto knew the base would be near impossible to move unless Amaimon himself shifted the earth, solid so that nothing would be toppling the monument except time.

They would be around enough to repair it even with the natural state of decay all things suffered.

Gold peered up at him from beneath Amaimon's lashes, waiting.

Ah.

"Beautiful, Amaimon," he gave the praise, receiving a nod in turn as Amaimon stepped back.

It was his part now. He snapped, the pendant appearing in the protected glass on the raised bed Amaimon had created, slotting into place with finality.

And, etched into the face of the pedestal, was Abduxuel's name. A thought occurred to him and he snorted, another snap etching letters that Rin would be able to understand. He'd been behind all of it, so it was only fair that they incorporate a language he could read.

There, it was done.

Nothing earth shattering happened at their completion. The world kept spinning on its axis.

Still…

"It's nice," Amaimon said, head cocked as he took in their work.

It was.

Time drifted, Mephisto losing himself in the green of Abduxuel's pendant beside Amaimon.

"I'm going to go to Rin, now," Amaimon broke in a few moments later.

He paused, a slow blink of his eyes up at Mephisto. The hesitation passed, Amaimon swaying to brush their shoulders together in a bold, for him, expression of affection.

His heat and the sensation of his touch lingered when he vanished.

Mephisto released a long exhale, another, it trailed into a shiver at the end. Without his say, he found himself kneeling, body numb to the environment.

That first day back in Assiah after he'd let go of Abduxuel, he'd returned and seen the evidence of his failure. Instead of his own eyes in the mirror, Abduxuel's stared back, accusatory, he'd thought, and a golden sheen crowned his hair in place of the purple that should have been there.

He'd shattered every mirror in the house.

Killed the demons that had served him, because they should have remembered Abduxuel, but didn't, and so also became reminders of his failure.

And then Lucifer had snapped, deciding if he couldn't have a body that worked, then no one should. He didn't have time to mourn after that, his plans hinged on too many moving pieces to focus on the one thing he couldn't change.

Even now, he didn't have time. The gate had opened, Lucifer's perfect vessel for Father neared readiness every moment this timeline's derailed plot moved forward.

Yukio Okumura was on schedule, had spoken to Lewin and received his mission, but the gate was opened too soon. Who knew if Yukio would defect in the following months in time for the events on the Dominus Liminus to happen.

Now that Lucifer was aware his plan had succeeded, their little disagreement was back on track. He would just need to get all his pawns in their roles.

The green faceted gem called him from his plans, a wry huff leaving as he sat back against the raised pond, tilting his head and closing his eyes.

Demons weren't prone to wonder, or thinking about could-have-beens, but he was now realizing that he'd always been curious. He _wanted_ to know the nature of demons and of humans.

Abduxuel had never wondered, too caught in the present, the future too esoteric, but he'd let Mephisto ramble, became excited about the new with him when they discovered it together.

Would Mephisto have discovered the definition of love he'd been lacking without Lucifer's interference? If he'd had more time with Abduxuel, would the same evolution Amaimon had undergone completely alone have happened to him, to them?

Lucifer's words rose in his mind, that the reason he'd failed was because he saw Abduxuel as a piece of himself and their bond formed from a desire to be whole.

And Rin's words followed, that if what they had was enough for them, then it was enough.

It had _never_ been enough.

His vessel ached with memories and, without his say, his hand clenched over his stomach to grip the fabric until he knew it verged on tearing.

It had never been enough, and he'd spent every moment in every timeline after chasing something indefinable.

Ambition, hunger for more, for anything outside the status quo, beyond what their other kin were content with, he'd wanted it.

It had taken almost true death to realize that his ambition was a separate thing altogether.

Why had it taken him so long? _Why?_

A spasm, his claws tore through his suit and the irrational urge to laugh sent his stomach lurching.

At every turn, he'd fled. Right up until the end when even hearing Abduxuel attempt to call him "love" had slid a discordant note through his body like the cruelest knife.

Had that been a sign? Had Abduxuel meant it as more than a mimicry of the humans?

How could he ever know, now?

In Abduxuel's last moments under the curse, had he remembered his own name, Mephisto's? or had he died nameless, without any memories of them.

"Hah!" the sound gasped from his lips, burned on his tongue. His stomach gave another lurch, heaving with the silent laughter.

He'd tried. He'd tried! Rin had said as much to Lucifer, that at least he'd tried, for as long as he could.

He'd tried, had Abduxuel seen that?

_I tried I tried I tried_

"I'm _sorry,_ " the words burst out, choked, his claws dug into his palm, eyes squeezed until they hurt, and the sting of both didn't cover that wet heat slid down his cheeks.

"I tried," the words left him weak, a bare whisper.

Two hundred years too late to matter.

But, "I tried, love."

Saying it out loud, he accepted the truth, a dogged shadow he'd been evading for centuries.

And he knew-

Vertigo. The world spinning, reality twisting around his vessel, his aspect, a wash of knowledge that swept his mind beneath torrential waters and stole his breath from his lungs.

"Ah-hhh."

Mephisto heard the broken utterance through miles of water.

It hadn't come from him.

He opened his eyes.

Green stared back, it wasn't his reflection.

"Sam…ael?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 😁😁😁
> 
> Starting things right with another cliffhanger ayyyyy
> 
> Hope you guys are ready~


	2. I'd Like to Get to Know You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Space-time has become Space & Time again. What do you do when you go to mourn a loss and come back with your entire world tossed out of orbit?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One chapter closer to the snippet I’ve had written for an entire year, waiting for me to finish BRS to finally connect to lol Also, is it bad I associate Diamond by Rhianna with Mephisto/Abduxuel??? Every time I wanna be upset with myself for the cheesiness of it, I listen to the song like...ok fine >.>
> 
> But this chapter was a bit delayed bc I have recently discovered the wonders of the phone drawing app Medibang (friendship/fixation ended with Animal Crossing, me n Medibang are bffs now) and how easy it is to just start drawing on my phone whenever a random idea hits instead of waiting to pull out my ipad and Procreate later lololol (why does that sound like an ad I just did XD)
> 
> So like, I have in fact set up an IG art account where my sfw stuff goes if you guys wanna check it out :D username is just thebeingofeverything, as u do lol
> 
> (Also a Tumblr art account under tboesart)
> 
> Song of the chapter: Ozone by New Politics
> 
> https://open.spotify.com/track/6akMoLzMtlGV0UphmCVZ9V?si=Bsc59oaoTJyVcezqVfamaA

"Hey, where's Mephisto? Still out there?" Rin asked as Amaimon appeared in the kitchen.

A nod and Amaimon moved to peer over his shoulder at what he'd been preparing for lunch.

"It's just some sandwiches, nothin' fancy," he said, handing one of the completed ones to Amaimon. It lasted all of a second before Amaimon was back and Rin flicked a finger at the clawed hand grabbing for another. "Hang on until I finish. Go get a drink or something."

Amaimon grumbled but it was a token complaint, already used to Rin's demands to at least attempt to eat meals together.

Rin wondered how it had gone after he'd left them to their task, but figured by the calm way Amaimon summoned himself a glass that his idea had helped after-all.

Then it was peaceful in the kitchen, Rin’s tail swaying at his feet in absent motions while he prepared another sandwich for the mountain they’d go through, and Amaimon taking his place on the counter with his glass.

“Thank you, Rin.” The sudden words from Amaimon had Rin stilling his motions, then the meaning hit and he smiled.

“No problem,” he said simply. “It’s good you guys are even going along with this. So thanks for not shooting it down when I suggested it.”

Another sandwich made it to the pile. Rin hummed and began the next.

“He wouldn’t say his name before,” Amaimon said, rushed, and it made Rin pause further, turning to see Amaimon focused on the glass in his hands. “He wouldn’t let anyone say his name. Or talk about him.”

Yeah, Rin could definitely see that, wincing at imagining hundreds of years going by without ever mentioning Shiro’s name. To bury Shiro, to pretend he had never existed, would be crueler than Rin could take. Clearly, Amaimon had thought so too, even if Mephisto hadn’t.

“You want anoth-” Rin broke off, gasping as a wave of energy slammed through his skull. Vertigo followed after, and he thought he might be swaying where he stood.

The distant sound of something clattering to the floor registered from miles away.

Then knowledge shoved itself into him and Rin groaned, sinking to his knees.

_Twinaspectsformedfromthe **void** wrappedaroundtheconceptof **eternity**_

Space and Time.

_What?_

Whimpering drew Rin from the whiplash he hadn’t quite recovered from. Amaimon’s unhidden distress was enough for him to force it down, jerking to see wide gold eyes fixed on a faraway point.

A point that happened to be in the direction of Mephisto.

“Amaimon--what?” Rin tried to speak, voice ragged around his panting breaths.

It made Amaimon shake, a deep judder of his body. When he turned to Rin, it was with the same terror in his eyes he’d carried when Lucifer had revealed the truth of the curse.

He opened his mouth, a thin whine that sent Rin’s heart racing at the lack of Amaimon’s usual apathy.

His whine tore from him, a single name falling out at the end that struck Rin to the core.

_“Abduxuel.”_

* * *

“Samael?”

Eyelids fluttered over strained green eyes he could barely see through the tears he couldn’t clear from his own.

His mind screamed, voiceless and panicked, unable to break from his parted lips as if he was trapped by the curse again.

Mephisto stared, a long keen began ringing in his ears that still didn’t cover the heart slamming to his ribs and the rush of a frantic pulse in his veins.

The keening came from him, ripping free at the sight that wouldn’t change despite the gaining seconds.

Knowledge refused to alter, reality refused to match with the one he’d grown used to.

Fear entered the mirror staring back at him, a warping frown and panting breaths beginning to pick up.

“Samael.” The mirror moved towards him and Mephisto shoved back in a vicious recoil, shoulders cracking to the stone of the pond at his spine.

Cold water splashed to his skin through his clothes from the destroyed stone edge. The jagged breaks cut rents into his arms, warmth registering a moment later as the water stained red over his suit.

Abduxuel frowned and struck.

Solid arms--not an illusion, real, they were _real_ \--wrapped him in their hold, a weight settling like a gravity well on his body that felt too small, too weak, all of a sudden.

He couldn’t bear the touch and collapsed, a cry interrupting the keen as he crushed beneath the force holding him down.

“Samael!” His name! That was his name, spoken in a way he hadn’t heard in two hundred years and every timeline since.

A hand gripped to his hair and dragged his head to the crux of a warm neck, the scent overwhelming him as the water sluicing around them trickled to a stop.

On instinct, his jaw dropped wide, fangs bared to bristling wedges. In the next second, he clamped them to the offered neck, snarl half-formed, but strangled by another whine. Sharp pain lanced through his nerves, a twin set of fangs sinking down.

And, following, a claim.

Space draped around him, a blanket containing all the confusion lashing into a storm until he found the eye of it, a calm in the center he drifted in.

Shudders went through his frame as a solid body kept him from falling to pieces. Mephisto floated, numb to everything but the claim settling to his core. Despite every one of those pieces telling him what he was feeling was impossible, he couldn’t help reaching out.

Tentatively, his aspect unfurled, a caress against the one waiting with a still patience that said it would be there for eternities until the universe reset itself in a snap.

Waiting for him.

Mephisto lay his claim down in a desperate grab, latching to the aspect like it would disappear again if he let it, if he was too slow.

_Abduxuel!_

He tried to say the name, syllables crashing over themselves in his mind to muffle in a wrenching gasp that might have been a sob against the shoulder he burrowed himself further to.

Purring started up as fingers pressed, steady and firm, to his head and scraped claws through the tangled strands. The sharp pinpricks to his nerves jumpstarted Mephisto into action, unlatching his fangs from the skin that wasn’t degraded, wasn’t the shell of a rotted husk laying on the floor of Lucifer’s domain.

Then he pulled back in a jerk to stare, panting through a gaping mouth, up at the face he saw every time he looked in a mirror.

Instead of the memory he expected, the image shifted, a cautious frown and furrowed brows over eyes searching his.

“How?” the word cracked from Mephisto, throat too tight, aching and stopping his utterance as he swallowed around a strange block that wouldn’t leave.

Lips moved, Abduxuel _spoke_ , “I don’t…know?”

His voice! Mephisto shivered and clung harder, chest beginning to squeeze around heaving breaths. The breaths escaped as hysterics, laughter he couldn’t keep back, control wiped clear from his grasp and replaced with-

“You’re crying,” Abduxuel said over the rationality-stealing turbulence. He brushed the warm pads of his thumbs to Mephisto’s cheeks, over the ridge of his brows, along his lips, each progressive swipe returning some portion of control to Mephisto.

“You’re alive!” Mephisto gasped out between laughs, throwing the equally as unbelievable statement back at Abduxuel.

“I am,” Abduxuel confirmed, pressing their foreheads together and smiling in a crinkle of his eyes. “I think-I think I never left?”

Never left? “You died, I let you die.”

Abduxuel’s touches stilled and his heart stilled with them, waiting.

“I remember…” Aduxuel trailed off, frown deepening, “I-there was a terrible place, like being without a vessel.”

Lucifer’s curse. Mephisto kept the growl from building to audible levels, caught by Abduxuel and still waiting, another sharp kernel of emotion growing beneath his ribs.

“And I remember you.” Mephisto’s breath hitched, shrinking in on himself at the confirmation.

“You tried to save me, I remember,” Abduxuel said and new tears welled from Mephisto, heart rate picking up because _he’d seen_.

Without his say, with his control and will ripped away by the impossibility pinning him in place, the rest of his fears bubbled out, “I tried--I didn’t understand--but I _do_ now, I do.”

“I know, love.”

Mephisto’s words rotted in his mouth, then he clenched his teeth until the enamel squeaked and ducked his head to Abduxuel’s chest, laughter turning choked and wet.

How was it possible? He inhaled, taking in the scent he’d half-forgotten, metallic, like a meteorite burning up in the atmosphere, gunpowder igniting, _Abduxuel_.

One thing was clear. He’d have never had this again if not for one other impossibility.

_Rin._

"You'll have to meet the one responsible for your life, the one who broke the curse on me, you'll like him--you'll love him."

Nose pressing to Mephisto’s hair in his own inhale, Abduxuel brushed the new tangles he'd gained from his face. He tilted his head, allowing the ministrations to soothe him, the physical actions grounded by the claim binding them in a steady glow he basked under.

Lips followed the trails across his skin, a warm path where his tears had tracked as Abduxuel finished with his nose burrowed to Mephisto's neck.

"If he got through to you, I know I will, Samael."

Surreal silence passed them by, Mephisto’s claws twitching with the urge to dig, to cling, but the fear that, if he clung too hard, Abduxuel would vanish as suddenly as he appeared kept him from it.

“You’ve changed, Samael,” Abduxuel murmured to his throat, and Mephisto flinched, another uncontrolled reaction he couldn’t hide from his other half. Not anymore. Not scraped raw as he was.

"For one, you smell like Amaimon," he continued, sly, _not_ angry, as he nosed further to Mephisto's now fluttering pulse. “Something else, too.”

Something. Something like _Rin_.

“You’ve been gone for two hundred years, love,” Mephisto managed to say, a stuttering rasp that cracked out of his dry mouth.

The purr rumbling against him strengthened. “Things have really changed, if you’re using that word.”

He’d never experienced a need to explain himself to anyone, but the urge hit him then, impulses he couldn’t control because things still didn’t feel real. Abduxuel's claim, his scent, his vessel, existing exactly as he'd been before the curse, didn't even happen in his mind.

“I searched in so many timelines,” the admission poured from him, “I went back to the start, but I couldn’t find you.”

Couldn’t find him, and each time he failed, pieces hardened and shattered and fell away until only a bitter core remained.

Mephisto had gone back to the agony of formation, but he'd formed alone.

Always alone.

Abduxuel didn’t respond, fingers circling in a steady rhythm to his scalp, a fidget he’d forgotten--or, more than that, one he’d pushed down--over the years.

“It’s like I said, I don’t think I left.” Mephisto drew back, trying to puzzle out Abduxuel’s slow sentence. “There’s nothing, just the sense that I was…with you?”

His mind flashed to the memory of Abduxuel’s breath on his lips he’d experienced when he’d been under the curse, and Mephisto began to stabilize, letting the familiarity of working through a problem put him back on solid ground.

A chuckle huffed against his hair and a claw tapped to his forehead, making him go cross-eyed as he saw amusement in the twist of Abduxuel’s lips.

“I didn’t mean for you to start trying to unravel this mystery right this instant,” he said to Mephisto’s unspoken question. “And much as I’m thrilled to exist again, I think your fish are dying.”

The sounds of gasping fish in the shallow waters of his now empty pond brought Mephisto completely back to the present, a laugh shocked out of him and a snap of his hands following to reverse the damage.

Now, sitting with his spine to the repaired wall of the pond, Abduxuel in his lap and grinning, he reached to drag him into a kiss, releasing all the pieces of desperation he hadn’t been able to before.

So human. It was so human, but the only other way to express himself would be destructive and even the thought of harming Abduxuel sent his heart skittering in animalistic fear.

“Is this the current style the humans are in?” Abduxuel rubbed his fingers to the collar of the suit Mephisto had clothed him in with his snap.

"It is." Mephisto admired the cream suit and the way it complemented the dark blue of Abduxuel's hair, once more crowned in the golden sheen that had gone to him with their merging. "Among many others you'll enjoy familiarizing yourself with."

"Excellent." Abduxuel perked up, fangs peeking from his lips in a smile. A tightening started in Mephisto's chest as he realized what Abduxuel familiarizing himself with the new age would mean, following the chain of events to their natural conclusion.

Abduxuel would grow bored, then he would leave.

“Why don’t we go say ‘hello’ to dear Amaimon and you can introduce me to that other creature that has managed to worm its way into your heart, hm?” Abduxuel said to his mouth, bringing him from his twisting fears.

Oh. Mephisto stole another kiss from lips that responded back and allowed it to destroy the memory of unnaturally still ones that wouldn’t, no matter how many times he tried. Then he rose, Abduxuel with him, and wound their arms together to face his home.

“It’ll be good to see the little scamp again,” Abduxuel said, excitement in his voice and eyes shining with inner light, fixated on the direction they could both sense Amaimon.

Mephisto didn't fight the wide grin or the pleased purr, didn't stop himself from running a finger to Abduxuel's wrist, or the brush of their aspects. He was done running.

"Yes, let's."

They vanished in a flash of will to appear in his kitchen.

Hissing met them, erupting from Rin at the shock of their arrival. He’d crouch on the floor over a dark shape that shifted to reveal Amaimon, curled beneath Rin’s protective shadow.

Amaimon held a glass of what looked like water, clutched to his chest like a security blanket, wide gold eyes glazed, pinned to where they stood at the entryway.

Rin’s gaze flicked between them, but his tension didn’t ease, if possible, it deepened at the sight they presented.

“Your eyes are a different color,” Rin said to Mephisto, dazed as he broke the impasse. “Why are they a different color?”

“Mm, I believe the exact color would be called ‘chartreuse’ by the humans, after that lovely drink of theirs,” Abduxuel slid in. Mephisto saw the way Amaimon flinched, and he waited for the break.

Debating which of them would handle the shock better sent what was probably cruel amusement through him, though that could just be the hysterics he shoved aside to settle into the familiarity of a half-remembered game.

“I did always prefer absinthe, love,” Mephisto purred as he spoke into Abduxuel’s ear, rubbing their cheeks together. Amaimon might have heard how his heart struck against his ribs, but Mephisto didn’t think he’d even registered a sound outside of the ones Abduxuel produced.

“I don’t think I’ve had the pleasure of trying that one,” Abduxuel said. “Something to look forward to, then?”

“Who is he? What’s he saying? I don’t understand him,” came the growl from Rin, and Mephisto sighed, realizing that Abduxuel had been using an older dialect Rin would only vaguely understand.

Before he could explain, Abduxuel locked his gaze to Rin and sucked in a sharp gasp. When he spoke, it wasn't in any human language.

"Incredible," the discordant notes of Gehenna hissed from Abduxuel as a shiver of the familiar went through Mephisto, "Samael, only you would find yourself in a bond with a creature such as this."

Recognition entered Rin's eyes and his lips curled over his fangs, startling Mephisto when he growled.

"Yeah, he is--with me--and I'm not a creature, I'm Rin Okumura."

The room stilled. Amaimon's eyes flickered with a glow of power, darting to Rin and Mephisto before dragging back to Abduxuel.

Only Abduxuel and Rin kept going as if nothing unusual had happened.

"Yes, that was rude," Abduxuel nearly purred out, restraining himself so that only Mephisto could feel the taut way he held his body and the intermittent trembles. "Why don't we start again?"

Rin glowered, nodding.

"I'm Abduxuel, demon king of space, and second in Gehenna. It's very good to meet you, Rin Okumura."

Glass shattered in Amaimon's hands as he broke.

"Go," Mephisto snapped to Abduxuel, though he'd already been moving.

He watched, breath heavy in his lungs and an ache building in his chest as Abduxuel appeared ahead of Amaimon and wrapped him in immovable arms.

Screams that pierced his ears and yowls that would have sent a human's blood curdling in their veins, seeping from burst vessels, and them writhing on the floor, erupted in a torrent from Amaimon.

Red flew in wet arcs as Amaimon gouged vicious claws into the arms that wouldn't release him no matter how hard he struggled. Gravity welled to keep Amaimon from ripping himself free and Gehenna poured from Abduxuel's lips in a steady stream.

And Rin stood from his crouch in the careful way of a predator about to attack.

"Rin," Mephisto said, getting eyes that lacked the humanity they usually carried, looking more like the ones Rin had pinned Lucifer and Egyn with--or that he'd woken wearing after unsealing his heart.

"It's ok, Rin, he won't hurt him," he soothed, watching wary recognition bleed the danger from Rin and allow humanity back in. "Come here, I'll explain."

Time to play damage control. Mephisto hid a laugh, letting a wry smile form at the way Rin struggled to let Amaimon out of his sight.

"He just collapsed," Rin said, growl still an undercurrent, and Mephisto realized Rin must have been remembering the last times he'd seen Amaimon fall--namely after Satan's possession attempt. "He wouldn't talk. He was _scared_."

Yes, Mephisto understood Amaimon's reaction very well. Even just letting Abduxuel loose had his claws flexing in an abortive motion to drag him back to his arms.

He'd been preparing himself the moment they'd reached the kitchen, knowing Amaimon's first reaction in a situation he couldn't cope with was always to flee.

It still had brittle ice cracking across his chest, a spider web that went to every long-untouched corner. His fingers twitched, the warmth from where they'd held Abduxuel already faded. He tracked the way Abduxuel subdued Amaimon through tunneling vision.

A surreal haze had trapped him, kept him from acting on impulse as Rin made it to his side.

Sudden heat to his arm wrenched he's head down to see Rin adjusting his hand into a firmer grip. Blue eyes on a cautious face forced Mephisto away from the instincts clawing at his mind.

This was important. He had to keep control of the situation. Logically, Abduxuel wouldn't disappear because he wasn't keeping physical contact with his vessel at all times. Abduxuel would never tolerate it anyway.

It took a last shudder before he quelled the uncharacteristic impulse and smiled at Rin.

"I'm not quite sure, yet, Rin, but it seems as if Abduxuel-" he kept the stutter over the syllables of his other half's name from escaping, but Rin would have felt the tremors.

"Hmm-ah, yes," why did it feel like the oxygen had been sucked from the room? "He's alive. He's back-alive, again."

 _How?_ And why now? _Why_ -

"Hey," the hand on him squeezed, and his breath failed, Mephisto finding he'd been staring at Abduxuel, unblinking, as Amaimon's struggles wore down. "I don't get it, but you feel weird."

"Weird?" The word came strained, tight. "How so, Rin?"

What was considered weird at this stage, after all?

"Different," Rin said, "not less, but something was there and now it's not. I don't know how to explain it.

Laughter tried to bubble in his lungs, a chemical reaction near to bursting from its confines.

"Yes. Different." Rin had hit the nail on the head. "What you're sensing is that I am no longer the aspect of space-time, but time, alone."

Space was over there, sinking to the floor with a panting Amaimon, who still had the feral, terrified look of an animal caught in a trap but had exhausted itself struggling and gone limp.

"I'm as I was," his words drifted from his mouth, "at the start, before the timeline rewrote itself."

Before Lucifer's curse, and _his_ failure.

"That's good, right? That's great!" Heated fingers rubbed in comforting pressure to his arm.

Shivers shook Amaimon's body where he curled as much as he could to Abduxuel, claws latched to his chest and face hidden between them. His core had closed, tight to his center and walled off.

"It is good." Had he said it out loud or only in his head?

Twin aspects, formed together, spinning around each other in a dance as close as two beings could get. They'd stopped spinning, fused to one, and left him tottering on feet used to dancing with a partner, suddenly required to learn balance on his own.

He'd grown accustomed to a solo performance.

Could he relearn the steps?

"It's good to see my presence was missed," Abduxuel said, no longer in the random comforting he'd been doing, "but moping isn't how I'd like to make my debut, Amaimon, really."

A flinch, Amaimon's shoulders tensed, and he drew his head back to blink, breaths finally slowed to something approaching normal.

 _Normal_.

“You’re alive,” Amaimon stated, voice cleared of the emotion that had painted his face, the only remainders in the streaks of red staining him and the way his pupils stayed dilated in his eyes.

“Yes,” Abduxuel nearly chirped, “and Samael has already put his clever mind to work on how that came to be."

Already, the roles they’d existed with were falling back around them as if there hadn’t been interrupted time between. Mephisto could see the way he would normally respond and the path it would lead them down.

But…

“Now what?” Rin said, and Mephisto was abruptly reminded that things weren’t as they had been. There was a new side to the die, another player in the game.

"Well," Abduxuel separated himself from Amaimon with a tweak to his ear and appeared back at Mephisto's side to eye Rin down, "I suppose that depends on you doesn't it, Rin."

Power slid along Mephisto's veins like a knife, or maybe it was just the claw Abduxuel traced over his throat in deliberate circles.

Rin stilled, body drawing up in a subtle shift and hand gripping to Mephisto's arm.

"What do you mean?" The words from Rin contained a hissed undercurrent Mephisto considered trying to soothe before it reached the boiling point. He held back.

It only had Abduxuel humming in delight, and Mephisto knew if it wouldn't have given the game away he would be shaking with his excitement.

"According to Samael, I have you to thank for my revival." Abduxuel leaned down, verging on dangerously close to Rin. Mephisto was reminded of Abduxuel's other tendency to play too close to the edge. "My knight in shining armor, as the humans say."

"You’re welcome," Rin said, pupils slivering. His ears had extended. Claws pricked to Mephisto through his clothes.

"You know," the electricity in the air increased, Abduxuel's voice dropping and Rin's hackles noticeably rising, "Samael and I used to share everything."

Mephisto prepared himself, Amaimon doing the same from the crouch he hadn't left.

" _Everything_." A warm cheek rubbed to his in a possessive movement.

Rin attacked.

Snarling bloomed from Rin's mouth into Abduxuel's where he'd tackled him to the floor and Mephisto could sense flames just beneath his skin.

"What do you want?" Rin snapped in a seething hiss through elongated fangs.

The pupils in Abduxuel's eyes had blown as he gazed into the blue-fire irises Mephisto knew Rin would be wearing. A tail with the ghost of those flames lashed behind Rin and his grip left bruises on Abduxuel's wrists where he'd pinned them against the tile.

Tongue darting to his lips from a slackened jaw, Abduxuel didn't answer for several long moments. Then, with another deep, warning growl from Rin, he smiled and laughed, head tilting back in submission as he bared his throat to Rin's stunned expression.

"What I want- what I _mean_ \- is that I'd like to get to know my hero,” he continued where he'd left off, laughter trailing to chuckles.

"Uh," Rin said, then seemed to realize what he'd been doing, possessive instincts thrown off by the sudden end of the challenge Abduxuel had been presenting. He jerked back, stuttering what might have been an apology and looking to Mephisto with guilt on his features. "I don't-"

"What he's trying to say," Mephisto cut in, smiling down at the unabashed glee on Abduxuel's face, "is that he'd like to take you on a date, Rin."

"A date?" Abduxuel said, another glow from his eyes at the new term. "Is that the word they're using now?"

At Mephisto's nod, Abduxuel grinned and tapped a finger to Rin's hand in his lap to get his attention focused on him again. "Yes, a date. I'd like to take you on a date."

“O-oh,” another stutter, Rin’s ears beginning to look red at the tips as he glanced between them, “now? You just got here--I made lunch--we were supposed to-”

His words muffled when Abduxuel pressed a finger to his lips and rose on his elbow. “I don’t think I’m likely to vanish within the day, and, to once again borrow from the humans, there’s no time like the present.”

His other half had never been one to stay in place for long. Mephisto let his grin soften at the worried expression Rin turned to him even as he covered the instinctive, _grasping_ urge in his gut to keep Abduxuel in sight at all times. He would only flee faster if Mephisto tried.

At least this way Abduxuel would be with Rin. And he _would_ be back because he would want to experience the new, and Mephisto had two hundred years to catch him up on. He would be back.

“Hey, we don’t have to go if you don’t want us to,” Rin said, firm and calling Mephisto away from the spiral he’d entered. The conviction there, the same that had allowed Rin to conquer Gehenna with Amaimon, also allowed Mephisto to fix his smile and wave in a casual shooing motion.

“No, please, Rin, it’s as he said, it’s highly unlikely that he’ll disappear again if my suspicions are correct, and we have an eternity now.” The words sounded confident, Rin still didn’t look convinced, blue eyes sweeping over his form as if searching for the hidden truth.

"I'll have him back for dinner, Samael," Abduxuel purred, lashes lowered over his eyes and lips curling. He knew the thoughts running behind those eyes, even though it had been so long since he'd had to track their pattern.

“He won’t let you miss it,” Mephisto said instead of the million other things he could have. Whatever Abduxuel’s plans were, he knew they would never stand a chance against Rin.

"Ok," Rin said, though the frown he wore said if Mephisto gave the slightest indication he wasn't happy, he wouldn't be leaving anywhere. "You and Amaimon eat the sandwiches I made."

"Gladly, Rin, go enjoy yourselves."

Another sly grin from Abduxuel, a last glance between him and Amaimon from Rin, and the snap came to vanish them away.

His smile dropped. Mephisto drew in a careful breath, taking in the scent of his other half as a movement in the room had his ears twitching towards the source, unable to look.

Amaimon came beside him, staring at the space they'd occupied with heavy eyes.

"Is it ok?" Amaimon's words made an immediate answer tear itself into his mind.

No. It wasn't ok. Not really.

But, "There's not really a choice."

Their equilibrium had been destroyed, to incite the conflict he knew would come from attempting to keep Abduxuel in one place would only take the whole structure down.

Silence from Amaimon finally enabled him to break from the empty space in his kitchen to see what he would call disagreement in the slight narrowing of Amaimon's eyes.

"We shouldn't let Rin's hard work go to waste," he said, indicating the sandwiches to Amaimon and not thinking about the possibility that his words had a second meaning.

Without Rin, he wasn't sure how events would have played out. He went through the various scenarios, imagining that Amaimon would have come for him in the Order's labs, but unable to picture the rest.

It wasn't a complete picture without Rin.

Chewing had him snapping a glare to the counter where Amaimon had a sandwich halfway down his throat and another two in his greedy claws.

"Demon," he hissed, reaching to grab his own from the pile before Amaimon could snatch it too.

Between them, they had the plate cleaned as if it had never seen food. Then they were left without a distraction, leaning against the counter and watching each other.

"He was speaking-" Amaimon broke first.

"I know," Mephisto said, "our Rin is just full of surprises."

"Should have guessed," Amaimon grumbled, a scowl turned at himself for overlooking something that seemed obvious now.

Not one of the other timelines had included such a discovery, he wouldn't have used it if he could help it in the first place.

Abduxuel being back meant a return of many old habits. Mephisto had locked them away and put down anything that so much as hinted at that last, withered branch of a timeline.

"You're moping," Amaimon said, licking at his fangs while a gleam in his eyes that met Mephisto's let him know the tease had been entirely deliberate.

"I'm _thinking_ ," Mephisto said instead, pointedly and crossing his arms to the twitch of Amaimon's lips. "This is completely outside any of my plans and it's going to require a lot of care to make sure we come out alive and Assiah remains in one piece."

"Hm, ok, if you say so," Amaimon said as he tilted his head at the ceiling to stare as if in contemplation, "but it _looks_ like you're moping."

Brat. Mephisto fought the irritated growl, knowing it would only prove Amaimon's point.

"I don't know why," Amaimon continued, "he said he'd be back, and he's got Rin."

The implication being that with a creature such as Rin to hold his attention, Abduxuel would never be bored, and thus, never leave.

Fine. He saw Amaimon's point, a knot in his chest loosening despite himself at the clear logic.

"You're not listening, Samael."

What? Mephisto's brows furrowed at the casual way Amaimon buffed his claws to his shirt. What could he have missed that had the smug grin stretching Amaimon’s mouth?

"He also didn't say we couldn't go after them,” Amaimon said, blithe like it was a minor detail of no real importance and his face the utter picture of innocence.

Couldn't?

Mephisto laughed, the last of his apprehension draining away. "You're right, Amaimon, and that's as good as any invitation."

Meeting Amaimon's now toothy grin with one of his own, he snapped his fingers to follow after his errant claims.

* * *

The world reformed around Rin with the sounds of a snap fading into echoes.

Trying to avoid letting Abduxuel see his discomfort, Rin tried to figure out where he'd been taken.

Another foreign country, by the looks of it. Rin wrinkled his nose at the unfamiliar scents as his ears twitched, trying to place the language he couldn't understand.

There were buildings that looked like knights and princesses and dragons might inhabit them and a bumpy stone road went down on either side. It was straight from a fairy tale.

"Now then!" Abduxuel said, cheery and jerking Rin's attention back to see him beaming at Rin. "I suppose I should have asked, where do you want to go, what do you want to do? I'm unfamiliar with this world now."

Do?

Rin flushed, head dropping to the side. "I don't think I've ever been on a date, not even with Mephisto or Amaimon."

It was true, in all the rush of the strange week and the frantic pace of their lives after, nothing they'd done together really qualified as the classic idea of a date.

"Mephisto?" The question in Abduxuel's voice had Rin frowning, wondering what he'd said that confused him as he stared up into the green eyes he'd grown used to seeing on Mephisto. "Is he still going with that name?"

"Oh, uh, yeah, he is," Rin said, once again left off balance by the fact that standing in front of him was someone who'd been by Mephisto's side from the start and knew things about him Rin would probably never guess at. "It's the name I met him with. I didn't know his real name for a while."

Something had been raising the hairs on the back of Rin's neck. He thought it might have been Abduxuel, but the more he searched, the more it seemed like everyone around them was stealing his focus.

Then he looked, daring to take his eyes from Abduxuel to watch the people on the busy street.

"Usually Samael is much better about courting, really, he should have at least had you out for a play by now," Abduxuel said with a tsk.

There! When Abduxuel spoke, it was as if the people around them flinched, hunching in on themselves and rushing past. It was like Abduxuel's voice sent them scattering in fear or pain.

"What are you doing to them?" Rin asked instead of responding to Abduxuel's words.

"Hm?" A blink of those green eyes. "What, the humans?"

Another scattering.

"Yeah, them." Was he doing something? Aside from the general aura every demon carried that Rin could see now that he'd been fully unsealed, Rin couldn't see anything.

"Hah!" A hand slapped to Rin's back, startling him as Abduxuel bent to jostle him with his laughter. Rin wanted to be irritated, but, after spending so long in Gehenna with Amaimon learning how little he actually knew about demons, at this point he was resigned to reactions like Abduxuel's.

"You're new!" At least, Rin sighed, he sounded excited about that discovery and not mocking.

"Yeah, I kinda didn't know I was a demon until this year. Or even that demons existed," he said in a grumble, waiting for the inevitable shock his revealed information would bring.

"Fascinating," Abduxuel said simply, then, "but we're supposed to be on a 'date' so you'll have to give me some clues about what the proper procedures are for one."

And Rin was back to blushing as he scrambled to think about what, actually, people did on dates.

"Uh, coffee?" he blurted out, mind blanking as he said the first cliche that came to him to a broadening grin.

Abduxuel's hand turned him to look down one of the roads, his other gesturing in a wide sweep. "Well, you're in luck, we happen to be in a city renowned for its coffee, at least from the years after it was imported here."

"Known for its coffee?" Rin mumbled, trying to guess where they'd ended up.

"Now, let's see-ah!" Abduxuel snapped, taking them away again to appear in front of a busy sidewalk outside of an entrance to a place Rin couldn't read the sign of but assumed was a coffee shop, or a least a bakery, by the smells.

"Here we are, and it looks like the place is still around." Abduxuel already moved to head in, forcing Rin to follow or be left behind in a foreign country.

Narrow, high stone walls with wooden shutters and cluttered balconies overlooked the street on either side of the place. Rin nearly felt the stares as he left the street for the just as crowded restaurant.

A place that seemed as fancy as Mephisto's mansion greeted Rin but he couldn't stop to take it in as he hurried after the confident steps leading him through the much-bigger-than-he-thought shop.

Weren't they supposed to wait to be seated? And--Rin watched a person pay with their card at a nearby table--how were _they_ paying?

Before he could begin wondering how he'd escape prison in another country, a hand at his back pressed to guide him into a chair he hadn't even realized had been pulled out.

His leg started bouncing the minute he sat, tail trying to mimic the fidget beneath his shirt as Abduxuel moved to take his place across the table.

"It's much noisier in here since the last time, also," Abduxuel leaned in as he talked, animated like he didn't even notice Rin's nerves, "Samael wasn't wrong about the human clothing style changing so drastically. In this corner of the world, the women never would have worn trousers unless they were purposely disguising themselves as men, never mind the amount of skin they're showing."

"Er," Rin found himself blinking again as he was forced to try thinking about ancient history, "yeah, it's a thing nowadays, I guess."

"Something I'll have to learn on my own, I see," Abduxuel said, laughing once he recognized Rin had about zero knowledge in the subject.

"Now, what to get for us?" A hum from Abduxuel came, then another snap and the table filled with what looked like one of everything Rin had seen in the display case along with two cups Rin identified as coffee by the smell.

Despite never having cared one way or another about coffee it, coupled with the mingled scents of the food, had his mouth watering.

He had to get the recipes, Rin decided, knowing Mephisto and Amaimon would definitely appreciate it.

"Even the food has evolved!" Abduxuel already stole something that looked like a peach tart from the array, making his way through it with a contented sigh.

Rin gave an internal shrug and took something chocolate from the pile.

"How did you know about this place?" Rin couldn't help the words that came out between bites, wondering if it was rude and how he was even supposed to act around Mephisto's other half.

A claw flicked at him, and Rin scrunched his brows, drawing away as Abduxuel smirked.

"Behind you is your answer, Rin."

Behind him? He blinked, turning in his seat to see a wall of old-looking photos and stone heads decorating the room.

Then he looked closer.

Closer.

"Holy shit," Rin yelped, noticing a few of the people around them flinch but unable to worry about it with the current image holding his focus.

"Is that Mephisto?"

"Yes," Abduxuel said in a drawl.

It didn't look like the body Rin was familiar with, features foreign to him, but he'd recognize the strange horn curling from Mephisto's head anywhere.

But next to him was…

"Why's there two Mephistos?" Rin asked, lost, and not even bothering to hide it in the surreal situation he'd found himself in.

"That vessel you recognize is a dear friend of Samael's," Abduxuel said in a murmur. It took Rin back to face him, seeing the grin had lessened, almost wistful where he examined the wall of photos.

"His friend? But he possessed him." Rin didn't understand. What had happened? "Why would he do that if they were friends?"

Was it another demon thing? Rin didn't know if friendship looked the same to them and if Mephisto had allowed himself to feel it in the same way he allowed himself now.

"He loved that human, as much as he could at that point."

Rin grew stricken, breath hitching to hear that word come so easily, hinting at the past he never imagined he'd get the full scope of. Not from Mephisto.

“They used to frequent this place, many human creative types did during that time, and Samael joined him often.”

"Then why?" Rin trailed off, not sure if he even wanted the answer.

"I haven't the slightest!" Abduxuel spread his hands again, fangs showing with his smile, and leaving Rin feeling off-kilter.

"When I left with Samael for Gehenna, Henry was alive and well," Abduxuel said in a shrug. “And then I died.”

Ice slid down Rin's spine, a foreboding turning the chocolate in his stomach to stone.

How soon after losing Abduxuel had Mephisto lost another person? When he'd come back from Gehenna, what kind of state had he even been in?

“I can guess how he came to have him as a host, however,” Abduxuel said, voice dropping, and not doing anything to help Rin’s growing unease.

The wry smile quirked at Rin also didn’t soothe him, or the tired look that replaced it right after.

“Samael has never been good at letting things go.” He stared down into the cup, idly tilting it until the dark liquid swirled to stain the edges. “And even something like death wouldn’t offer an escape.”

He knew. The possessiveness was something that drove Rin to attack Abduxel when his logical brain had been guilt-ridden at hurting someone Mephisto and Amaimon had been mourning for years only to miraculously return. He couldn’t say how he’d react to the reverse of that. If one of them went for Shiro’s throat, would he have been able to stand down and let them work it out?

It wasn’t quite the same, Rin knew that too. For one, they’d already known Shiro--in Mephisto’s case--and in Amaimon’s case, he’d already shown he could control himself around Rin’s friends.

So it was just Rin who couldn’t stop himself from reacting to the challenge Abduxuel presented.

“Samael was cursed. Like me.” Rin’s attention snapped from his thoughts in an instant, heart thudding as he scrambled to figure out what he would say to the statement.

“Yeah, he was,” Rin said, not bothering to hide it when he saw Abduxuel had already guessed.

Nodding at the confirmation, Abduxuel leaned back, claws picking at one of the fruits on the new tart he’d claimed for himself, but not eating. That sense of foreboding increased again as acid green eyes flicked to Rin in a casual once-over.

“Did he ever tell you what it was like in there? What he went through to get back to you?”

His heart stopped, picking up again as his words stumbled out a second later, “A little. Not, um, not a whole lot.”

Whatever it had been left Mephisto with random bouts of paralysis he had to cover from everyone but Rin and Amaimon. Paralyzed the same way Rin was now, pinned under Abduxuel’s serpentine gaze and unable to breathe.

“I died screaming,” the words reached Rin as if from miles away, “drowned beneath the waters of my prison.”

Dread sucked him down with them.

* * *

“Ridiculous!” his voice burst out, cackling following close behind.

The blinding being didn’t seem to think so, waiting for the laughter to trail away.

His own heart couldn’t seem to steady, aching where it stuttered in a confusing beat to his ribs. The cure they spoke of, at this point he thought it must be to do with him, or possibly the other his voice had been trying to save.

Either way, he couldn’t understand.

 _Why_ was it ridiculous? Why was it any more outlandish than any other cure would be to his strange entrapment?

And why was his voice so adamant?

"Have the alchemists also convinced you they've finally discovered turning lead to gold?"

"It's the way I was saved, and it's the way to save --------."

A flinch. His voice's outline warped into a dangerous snarl, arsenic-green irises glowing before the features smoothed and he regained control.

"I'll prove to you its worthlessness," his voice hissed, stalking across the empty horizon.

Seeing him moving so close, even though he knew he could never touch him, stopped his heart in his chest. What would he do? Would he be free of this prison?

No, of course he wouldn't, but what if-

He strained against the power keeping him contained, desperate to cross the distance and reach his voice for reasons he couldn't explain.

But he failed just like he had every other time. Wordless--always wordless, why couldn't he _speak_ \--frustration had him panting as his voice neared, then vanished.

When his voice reappeared, he seemed to mirror his frustration, though he couldn't say why or what, exactly, he'd done.

"There, you see?" his voice scoffed, turning in a sharp wrench of his body to send his robe twisting around his legs and glaring at the blinding light. "I've kissed him and he hasn't woken."

Who was his voice trying to save with such fervency? A wistful thought intruded on him, that his voice might have been trying to save _him_ from his prison.

If something like a kiss could tear the numbness from his limbs and the exhaustion from his bones, he would welcome it.

Sleep took him under to wishes that human fairy tales held the key to his freedom after-all.

* * *

"What's the point?"

His voice whispered, and it sounded exhausted. It sounded as weary as he felt.

Dimmed irises stared at nothing in the sky from bruised eyes beneath hair that had washed of even the faint color it had carried at the start, gone lank with lack of care.

The gaunt hollows of his cheeks trembled once before stilling, and it seemed like he stared at him from his faraway place on the horizon.

"Even when I had you, I didn't."

Had _who?_ Who was the being his voice mourned as if he'd already died? He'd been tormented by the missing piece every waking moment and he ached for it in the same way he ached for his own name.

"If you woke, how long would it take before you fled again?"

To stay in one place was agony akin to insanity, but he couldn't imagine leaving his voice behind when an adventure would be so much more complete by his side.

Did whoever his voice speak of realize that? That he didn't have to leave his voice, that he could return and stop him from that miserable apathy--like he'd lost before he'd begun. All he had to do was return and tell him he could come with, that he was wanted.

His voice didn't have to give up.

* * *

"Give up. If you haven't learned to love -------- at this point then you never will."

Lucifer left, and Samael screamed his fury, power washing across his prison in a warping explosion that shattered everything in the room he now knew to be his final resting place.

Lucifer was right, in the end. He couldn't fight that anymore.

It had never really been up to him in the first place.

His name, his past, his life, all depended on Samael.

And Samael…

Rotted features held the eyes of his other half, the ones filled with tears from a face so expressive it could have been human. They stared at him, glowing with all the power at Samael's disposal that was _useless_ in the one aspect that counted.

Pacing filled his line of sight, trails of Samael's blood blackening the sky of his prison.

Inevitably, he returned to face him, and each time he did, new tears would fall and the cycle would repeat.

Like clockwork.

And like clockwork, he repeated three words in his mind.

‘I love you.’

Samael turned away again.

Again, he returned.

‘I love you.’

Once more.

‘I love you.’

Gone, oblivious as he'd been since the start.

‘I love you.’

He knew now that every time Samael's face grew near to his and vanished, he was trying to save him, trying the one cure Lucifer had provided.

He closed his eyes when it happened again.

But he still…

‘I love you.’

‘Why isn't it enough?’

_‘Why aren't I enough?’_

Energy flooded his veins with his sudden rage and he struggled against the knowledge he'd fought every moment since he'd realized the identity of the voice in his prison.

‘I love you, so why isn't that enough, Samael?’

Screams pushed at his chest until it squeezed tight enough he couldn't breathe, he thought his ribs had fractured in the vice placed on them but he couldn't stop.

He couldn't stop! There was so much he still needed to do, so much he needed to see and experience! And next to him, by every right, should be Samael.

Samael was his other half! His!

 _His_ claim, _his_ first, _his_ love!

Railing against the edges of darkness that encroached his vision didn't stop him from sinking.

It didn't stop, even when water blurred his vision, almost creating the illusion that he could share Samael's tears as he knew they'd shared everything else in life.

The waters covering his vision weren't tears, the hand clenched around his lungs wasn't the ache for Samael to try again and keep trying to save him from his prison.

He was drowning.

Samael leaned forward, his face a rotted skull and eyes clouded.

Air escaped his parted lips, rising through the water to the place Samael vanished for the last time.

And he died.

* * *

“It’s a cruel place, leaving you without memories until the very end when it threatens to take the little you’ve gained away entirely," Abduxuel finished, and instead of the earlier dread, Rin just felt tired.

"But you did--love him. You did already," Rin said as he tried to imagine dying like that and recoiled from it because it hurt just to _hear_ , let alone experience.

"I'm not sure how it came to be that I went through that strange evolution separate from Samael,” Abduxuel said, shrugging off the heaviness and working through another pastry.

“Amaimon did too,” Rin couldn’t keep from adding, seeing the slow blink of green eyes he got in return.

Abduxuel grinned, then, shaking more of the shadows from his face. "Yes, Amaimon was always something of an anomaly. Though I don't see him allowing a claim from me. He's especially independent."

Rin kept the automatic instincts to let his fangs drop at the thought of a separate claim anywhere near Amaimon at bay with another bite from his selection. It wasn't up to him who Amaimon allowed in, he knew that.

Another, deeper, worry reared its head, mind going to the late-night conversation with Amaimon. Rin knew the only thing that would hold him from forming a bond with Abduxuel would be outside forces. Amaimon _wanted_ to be a part of that bond.

He'd been wanting it for more years than Rin could comprehend.

What would happen now that the other half of that bond was back? Abduxuel had told him earlier, even if it had been a test for Rin, that he shared everything with Mephisto. So, how long would it take him to decide Amaimon was included in that?

It didn't matter--he sucked down the coffee and burned his mouth, but kept drinking--Rin wouldn't ever keep Amaimon or Mephisto from forming more bonds, just like they wouldn't keep him from the same. He just had to get used to it.

A hum from Abduxuel had Rin refocusing, seeing intent in the gaze across the table, but he could never guess what that intent was.

"I have a suspicion that Amaimon wasn't the catalyst that led to my revival, Rin."

"Er," Rin muttered, heart skipping again. He'd be more than happy to tell anyone exactly how essential Amaimon was to their survival and breaking the curse on Mephisto. But the way Abduxuel looked at him, like he was the most fascinating thing in the room, sent conflicted emotions through his body.

"For the same reasons I didn't survive, Amaimon wouldn't have reached him on his own," Abduxuel said and scratched a claw at his chin, the motion repetitive. "But you reached him."

It wasn't just him, Rin started to say. The growl that wanted to accompany the words built in his chest. Everyone wanted to dismiss Amaimon, and Rin was as tired of it now as he was when they'd faced down Lucifer and Egyn.

"I think now," Abduxuel said before he could talk, "that if things had been reversed and Samael the one cursed the first time around, it wouldn't have been I who broke it."

"What?" Rin blurted for what felt like the millionth time that day. A sensation burned inside him, knocked off-balance as he tried to understand. How was that connected to the conversation about him and Amaimon?

Abduxuel stared at the point behind Rin, making him jerk around to the picture again.

"It would have been Henry, not I, who saved him--or if I'd managed anything, it would be in the way Amaimon did." A chilled hand wrapped Rin's heart in a vice, lost in the sight of the smiles frozen in time.

"Henry always surpassed me in one specific aspect," Abduxuel's words slid through Rin's ears, the shape of his point forming. "Samael saw him as an individual."

He _knew_. It was exactly what Lucifer had told them when Rin had asked why Mephisto--if he'd tried--hadn't been able to wake Abduxuel.

Mephisto had confirmed what Lucifer said. That he hadn't understood then why he couldn't break the curse, and that he understood now.

Rin hadn't realized Abduxuel had also connected the dots, but it seemed obvious now. Of course, if he loved, then he would have understood the differences in what he felt and what Mephisto had felt.

“I was in him for so long, sleeping.” Another confusing statement from Abduxuel. Rin twisted to face him, mind blanking on what he could say to the empty expression.

Did Mephisto know this? Rin's heart pounded, feeling like he'd been given information with the potential to explode in his hands.

“I suppose, in a sense, Samael got exactly what he’d wanted all those years." Rin's ears rang, disorientated, watching Abduxuel's lips draw into a bitter frown and his fingers grip to his cup like he would break it as he spoke the rest of the damning words. "To be whole.”

To be whole.

The floor dropped under Rin's feet, stomach knotting into coiled snakes as he waited for the final shoe to fall.

"And once again," bitterness continued to pour from Abduxuel, filling the air between them until Rin stifled beneath it, "it wasn't love for me that woke Samael."

Liquid rippled in the cup, power curling to spark like live-wires only Rin could see. He had a flash of thought that he needed to stop things from going further or risk injuring anyone caught in the epicenter.

"No," Abduxuel said in a dangerous purr, that sent Rin's hackles rising, "it was _your_ love that reached him. You, who managed what an eternity of existence by my side _couldn't_."

Oh. Rin's flinch stayed internal but his dread broke free in a rush, driving his hackles down as he forced calm on himself before his own body-signals escalated things again.

Breathing deeply, Rin set his shoulders, lips pressed in a thin line to the crackling energy Abduxuel gave off.

He wouldn't be prey, but he also wouldn't let Abduxuel goad him anymore.

"It should have been us," a hiss bit at each word Abduxuel let out. "We should have-- _would_ have, if I hadn't--but we didn't get the _time_."

Rin's heart throbbed, seeing the clenching fangs and Abduxuel's exaggerated expression of agony he'd bared.

Enough.

"You're right."

Abduxuel stopped, cut short and taken aback as he drew up in his seat.

Sucking in a long inhale, Rin began, "You're right. I told Lucifer too when we found out."

Told Lucifer, and made it very clear to Mephisto, when he'd gotten him back.

"Told Lucifer?" Abduxuel said, question trailing at the end and weak.

"What you two had was your business," Rin said, slowly, so that Abduxuel wouldn't misunderstand. "Whether you figured it out or not wasn't up to _anyone_ but yourselves."

"And," Abduxuel sat against his seat to Rin's steady barrage, "none of that matters because he loves you _now_."

He had a second chance! Rin knew a million people who would kill for the opportunity. Just the thought of Shiro returning through some miraculous twist of fate had him gripping his hands into fists in his lap

Stunned, wide eyes flicked in rapid movements over his face. Rin didn't shift, holding in place while he waited for a response.

Black claws flexed to the cup with Abduxuel's indecision and he gaped at Rin. His mouth moved silently, jaw working with each abortive sentence before he seemed to settle on one.

"How can you be so sure?"

Compared to the earlier confidence, the teasing and testing Abduxuel had worn like armor, his voice came out meek with his question. The shroud had fallen and Rin saw the battered underside.

"You know nothing about me or the creature I am," Abduxuel said in another statement that still sounded like a pillar had shifted. "I know Samael. I know Amaimon. Two hundred years isn't enough to alter a demon so drastically."

"Maybe," Rin said, narrowing his eyes, but not convinced. "But you just got back so you don't know how they feel yet."

Didn't know, and left too soon. Rin still knew Mephisto wasn't actually ok with them going, despite the smile and assurances.

He couldn't tell why Abduxuel had done it, sure that there existed multiple reasons he wouldn't be guessing at any time soon. Being ok with it was another thing entirely.

Abduxuel probably knew it too, because Rin had always sucked at keeping his emotions under control and he'd long given up trying, especially at this juncture.

Fangs hid again, kept behind Abduxuel's lips as he bowed his head, suddenly looking so much like Mephisto and Amaimon that a sharp pang ran through Rin.

Tired. He just looked tired, like Amaimon every time he brought up memories of Abduxuel whenever Rin had opened his big mouth and asked a stupid question. Or Mephisto when he stared without blinking at a drink in his hands.

Blue hair hung over the green eyes Rin would have to get used to belonging to another being now. A golden crown that had been Mephisto's tilted towards Rin and shoulders slumped in defeat.

Mephisto had spent two hundred years and who knew how many timelines in mourning for the demon sitting across from Rin.

So he refused to watch as one more link was added to the chain of misery that had perpetuated itself for so long.

Fire sang in Rin's veins as he watched Abduxuel release a controlled hum, raising his head to give Rin a painfully faked smile and speaking.

"They miss the memory of me," he said, like he'd given up before he'd even tried.

His lips twisted before his expression smoothed again, laughter as forced as the grin and hardening Rin's resolve with his next words he let out.

"And I'm sure, given enough time, they'll remember the not so fond memories, the vicious, screaming arguments we could get into that ended in blood, the ways we didn't understand each other, the ways we didn't fit."

_No._

"That's not gonna happen!" Rin determined, almost crawling over the table as he gripped a stunned Abduxuel by his hand and held his gaze. "You didn't see them, but I did, I spent half that journey learning about you! About the hole you left when you died that they never recovered from, they never forgot about you!"

They'd never been able to let go and now that Abduxuel was back, Rin wasn't going to watch them throw their second chance away. Not if he could help it.

Odd seconds passed. The shocked look on Abduxuel's face faded into a brilliant smile, eyes crinkling closed as he clasped his other hand over Rin's and brought it to his mouth to press a kiss there. "You are a gift, Rin, thank you, very much."

Tension melted away with the last of the pressure between them, pressed into Rin's skin and released there.

"Don't mention it." Rin shrugged, self-conscious all of a sudden as he realized he'd once again butted into business he didn't entirely understand the complexity of.

"We've made quite the scene," Abduxuel said, smile once more a sly slice across his face and claws tracing in figure-eights to Rin.

The reminder had Rin flushing, twisting to look at the room only to draw up short as he realized they were the only two in that small section of the restaurant, the people who had been there when they'd arrived were gone.

"Uh, where's the people that were here?" Had they chased them off with the personal conversation?

Embarrassment sent Rin shrinking into his seat and his ears burning.

"Oh man, we should have picked a place without other people," Rin whimpered as he ducked his chin to glance back at Abduxuel beneath his bangs.

Grin now stretched to show fangs, Abduxuel loosed a delighted laugh, head tossed back and letting Rin go to clutch at his chest.

"Well, we do have a small audience still," Abduxuel said, though Rin had no idea what he was talking about, questioning sound dropping and making Abduxuel laugh harder.

Green eyes filled with tears that Abduxuel swiped a claw to clear. Then he snapped his fingers and said, "I think you've been hiding long enough, why not join us on our 'date' before we finish all the food?"

"Join us?" Rin said just as two clouds of smoke erupted in the small area.

In the next moment, Mephisto and Amaimon appeared, Mephisto grinning to match Abduxuel and Amaimon blank-faced but utterly focused on the rest of the pastries.

"Wha-" Rin mumbled, mind racing as he tried to figure out if they'd been there the entire time and--oh god had they heard all that? Was it even a bad thing if they had?

"If I hadn't already learned to love, this little darling would have just taught it to me, Samael," Abduxuel said in a cheer, drinking from his cup, then frowning at it. "Hmm, it looks like our conversation went on a bit. My coffee's gone cold."

By then Rin's face burned with the words from Abduxuel. Little darling? Him? He darted a look to Amaimon, wondering if he could pick up that Rin would welcome being dropped into the depths of the earth for the foreseeable future.

Amaimon didn't notice, moving to Rin and snatching the food off his plate. Rin considered burying his face in his side until he didn't feel like killing himself.

Sensation in a rasping slide to the tips of his ears sent Rin yelping, shoulders bunching as he snapped a glare up at Mephisto. The finger Mephisto had scraped him with went to scratch through his hair and, while it didn't make Rin's flush recede any, he felt marginally better.

Did he want to know when they'd gotten there?

"How did you know they were here?" he asked instead, daring to look at a smug Abduxuel again.

Mephisto settled by Abduxuel and something in Rin warred inside him, both happy to see the easy affection and irritated because…well because.

Instead of acting on either of his instincts, Rin held out his hand to the cup Abduxuel had given up on, heating it with a thought.

"Ah!" Abduxuel exclaimed, pout vanishing at Rin's actions, "Wonderful!"

Prodding along Rin's ankle had him sitting upright and looking at the source, getting a grin from Mephisto. The foot by Rin's continued to nudge at him as Mephisto decided to put him out of his misery.

"You likely didn't sense us arrive because we feel like you now that we carry your mark."

A body made itself at home in Rin's space next, Amaimon squeezing his way to sit on his lap like some sort of gargoyle and another pastry made its way into his mouth.

Having him there helped some of the ruffled instincts, so Rin wound his arms around Amaimon's waist to settle a few more.

"You'll learn," the shoulder by his cheek shifted with Amaimon's shrug as he spoke through a mouthful of food, crumbs scattering.

That was good to know, and it would give Rin another thing to learn from Amaimon whenever they fought.

People moved in the hall beyond their little room and Rin focused on them, something pricking his mind as he struggled to place the thought.

"This has been an eye-opening beginning, Samael, but I think it's time to move somewhere more exciting."

Flinches from the humans at the sound of Abduxuel's voice brought Rin straight back to their arrival in the city.

"Hey!" he said in a huff to looks of mild curiosity at his exclamation, "You never answered what was going on with all those people. Why do they keep looking scared when you talk?"

Silence in the room was expected, but Rin still released an irritated growl and tapped a claw to Amaimon, hoping it would jog an answer free.

Snickering trickled from Abduxuel's lips, the corners curling in amusement until Mephisto's mouth began to twitch too and Rin glared harder.

"Not just me!" Abduxuel burst out, shoulders shaking with his quiet laughter as he dropped his head to Mephisto's where they muffled.

"Huh?" Rin mumbled, glancing at the entrance again but unable to figure out what they meant.

"There were some communication errors in the beginning if you'll remember, Rin," Mephisto said, finally giving into him before he got too angry.

Communication? Rin's brows scrunched, then he gasped, "Yeah, wait, I couldn't understand you earlier, but now I can! What does that have to do with those people?"

"What language do you think he's speaking now, Rin?"

Baffled by the question, Rin froze, mind working to go over the last few hours since Abduxuel's arrival and coming up blank.

"Uh, Japanese?" Rin said, already knowing it was wrong by the twin smiles stretching even wider at him, Abduxuel clenching his eyes closed like he was holding back tears.

Sighing came from Amaimon, head twisting so Rin saw the expression he had come to associate with wry amusement, even if it was barely different from his usual expression.

"I'm speaking Japanese right now, do you hear the difference?"

Screaming wouldn't do anything but at least he'd feel better. Rin forced himself to concentrate on what Amaimon had just said and how it could be different than that other language they were supposedly using was.

“No?” he said, concentrating on the word he wanted to use this time and sure that it had been Japanese.

“Good, Rin,” Mephisto said and nodded at his attempt. “What amazes me is that you slipped right into the other without noticing at all.”

“He’s a demon of Gehenna, of course he should be able to speak our language,” Abduxuel said, finally overcoming his laughter. Not that Rin understood him, anyway.

“Our language?” Rin prompted.

“Pay attention, Rin” the slow words came from Mephisto and something about the way he spoke them pulled Rin in, nearly hypnotic, “You don’t want to go around using this so carelessly or you might drive listening humans into insanity.”

His heart stopped cold as Rin was abruptly broken from the spell in Mephisto’s voice when he registered the meaning.

“You mean we’ve been hurting all these random people?” Rin wanted to hiss with his fear. How was he supposed to figure out all the ways his nature was dangerous?

What if he used it around his friends?

But none of his concern made it through to the other demons in the room, not that Rin expected it to, letting out a long sigh and dropping his head to Amaimon.

“They fled when they heard it, even without mashous they still can’t bear to be around when it’s spoken,” Mephisto said with the lack of care Rin didn't ever anticipate changing.

Ok. As long as it wouldn't instantly cause horrible damage, Rin would just be adding it to the list of things he had to watch out for when he was around humans.

"Cool. So," he said, setting it aside to worry about later, "what are we doing now?"

"Something fun, Samael," Abduxuel sat up too, the gleam in his eyes with his anticipation getting Rin excited about what the next adventure could be. Now that they were together, he wondered what an actual date with Amaimon and Mephisto would look like.

"Well," Mephisto hummed, hand raising and poised to take them to their next destination, "it's been quite a while since I've been, but I have something in mind."

A snap, they vanished. Rin spared a second thought to whether they'd paid or not, then the sight that reformed around them washed it away.

Loud, cacophonous music, blinding lights in the dark, crowds of people in a massive wave that swept through the streets, and Rin gaped.

"Where are we now?"

Which corner of the world had he been transported to? He couldn't place the location if someone gave him a list of every country in the world. A million different faces passed them, scattered languages blurring together until his head ached trying to catch them all.

"Welcome, Rin, to the city of lost wages, the gambling and entertainment capital of the world, sin city!" Mephisto drew Rin by the shoulder, his other hand gesturing in a broad line across the horizon of lights.

"Welcome to Las Vegas."

Rin recognized that. He definitely recognized that. Enough Hollywood movies and _anyone_ would. His jaw dropped, unable to stop himself from taking in the scents, half of which made him want to gag, the others trailing like lures, enticing and heavy in the air.

"We're in America?" Mephisto nodded at his question, pride in his beaming smile like he'd personally built the city and was showing it off.

"The Americas?" Abduxuel spoke up, glow in his eyes that reflected the sights absorbing him. "They've certainly come a long way in this corner of the world."

"Yes, you wanted some excitement, and the night is still young." He brushed a finger to Rin's neck before moving to lead them into a palatial building.

Craning his neck until it ached still made it feel like Rin could never see everything there was. Rapid sounds from coins falling out of machines mixed with the blasting music while people laughed into their drinks, already drunk or well on their way.

One twist to watch another flurry of color that caught his attention and Rin saw Amaimon where he walked at his side.

Amaimon, who looked less than impressed. A bit more of reality brought Rin back to the ground and he started looking for something to distract Amaimon from the crowds and smells he knew he didn't like.

Vegas, Rin realized, was more his--and Abduxuel's, judging by the excitement on his face--speed, and much less Amaimon's.

The scent of fried food solved Rin's dilemma, and he went to tug at Mephisto's sleeve. "Hey, we should get something first, I know we just ate but I've never tried any of this stuff!"

Mephisto's gaze flicked from him to Amaimon and Rin figured he understood.

"You should get the full experience," Mephisto said and directed them to one of the bars.

One earth king temporarily distracted with an armful of snacks, they wound up at a table amongst many others in the middle of the floor.

"Ah! I know this game," Abduxuel said after he'd analyzed the actions of the people playing hands of cards rapid fire.

Rin didn't, frowning at the confusing words and actions everyone seemed to follow without difficulty.

Besides the family game nights he'd grown up with at the church with a few in particular dedicated to poker, Rin had zero experience with whatever game was going on in front of him.

"Something tells me you've never played, Rin," Abduxuel murmured to him, and Rin nodded along, enraptured by the hands dealt on the table. He remembered just in time to focus on the way Abduxuel spoke, trying to distinguish the language of demons despite his brain telling him everything made perfect sense.

The way Abduxuel's lips moved, maybe…

"Would you like to learn?"

He blinked away, hoping, but not optimistic, that Abduxuel hadn't noticed him staring at his mouth so intently.

His question registered a second later and Rin perked up. "Yes! This looks so cool."

It was like he was in a movie. Seeing all the well dressed people in high-stakes card games at a fancy casino and getting the offer to join hit multiple of his "things he'd always wanted to do one day" list.

"Here, loves," a card flashed between Mephisto's fingers and passed to Abduxuel's to inspect, "Don't bankrupt me."

No matter how many times Rin heard Mephisto say it, the flutter in his chest that rose buoyed him straight to cloud nine.

“Is this the new form of currency, then?” Abduxuel’s question and the way he flipped the card over in his fingers had Rin wondering if it was really ok for them to play around with Mephisto’s money, especially when he was usually so cheap.

“I don’t get it,” Amaimon said, sipping at something that smelled artificial and sweet he’d gotten, bored gaze drifting over the game.

There were probably a lot of things Amaimon didn't get about what they'd decided to spend their night doing. Rin started thinking about where he should start to untangle it a bit.

“There’s no challenge, it’s easy.”

Easy? Rin stopped, his brain hurting just looking at the game and trying to figure out if Amaimon really thought it was easy or he just didn't care enough to learn the actual rules.

“The challenge comes from fooling the humans, not the game itself, dear Amaimon," Mephisto said, eyes tracking the game with a calculating gleam that might have had Rin worried if he wasn't so excited.

Wait, what? Then Rin realized what Mephisto had actually said.

“The trick to this particular game involves counting the cards, but that will get you banned from any reputable casino--they don’t want you stealing their money, you see, not when they’re busy stealing yours.”

First they hadn't paid at the restaurant, now they were going to rob a casino. Rin wanted to laugh because at this point what else was he supposed to do?

“So, the only way to play is to fool the humans into believing you’ve won through honest methods without letting on that it’s anything but the case," Mephisto finished with a shark's grin.

Should they have been saying that stuff out loud? Rin darted his gaze before he remembered it was likely no one could understand them anyway.

"Let's do it," Rin said, mirroring the toothy grin as he gave up worrying about potential jail time in foreign countries.

He was in _Vegas_ , there was no way he was chickening out of the adventure.

Nodding, expression approaching dangerous levels of sly, Mephisto turned his smile to the table. Rin couldn't understand what he said, but he at least could guess that it had been English.

They sat, Amaimon still not thrilled but going along for the moment and Abduxuel taking up his spot next to Mephisto.

"Now Rin," Mephisto said as cards and chips ended up in front of them, "follow our lead, I'll explain as we go along and feel free to ask questions, no one here will understand."

That was definitely cheating, but getting to learn to gamble overtook any hesitance from Rin.

“Hmm, something’s missing,” Abduxuel hummed, gaze drifting as if searching for something. His pupils slivered, locking on, then he nudged Mephisto. “Samael, the night won’t have started without some drinks, yes?”

Was it Rin’s imagination or was Mephisto being a lot less tight-fisted than he’d ever seen him? Awe filled Rin as Mephisto didn’t even pause to think about it, waving down one of the scantily-clad women carrying platters to place an order.

"Rin," his name from Mephisto distracted him, attention directed to the table and the card that had appeared in front of his stack of chips. "Judging by the rounds we've seen so far, you'll want to hit once, then stay."

"Hit?" Rin asked, glancing to see expectant gazes from the others at the table and the dealer who’d placed the card.

“Like this,” Abduxuel called over, tapping a claw to the table as the humans flinched, and Rin was sure it was because he’d been speaking Gehenna. Though, given the state of the world, Rin couldn’t help wondering how many of the humans around them had mashous and could see the gleaming claws and fangs, the inhuman features.

But he did as asked, a card landing in front of him, then motioning to stop like Abduxuel had displayed.

The game moved on, Abduxuel and Mephisto taking turns pointing out rules to it, despite the growing discomfort of the humans every time Abduxuel spoke.

Mephisto at least had chosen to use Japanese, something Rin was beginning to recognize the more he heard the differences between it and Gehenna.

Amaimon just went through his pile of food like it was the only thing he cared about at the table, not that Rin wasn't sure that was the case.

Still, every time the dealer came to Amaimon, he was ready with a motion to hit or stay, barely letting his gaze flick away in acknowledgement.

Did that count as cheating too? That just the sight of Amaimon's coldly bored expression was enough to make the humans caught by it shake?

"Here Rin," Mephisto said as a glass wound up in Rin's hands.

Rin drank, then coughed, brows scrunching and nose burning.

"Is this a 'drink' drink?" he sputtered, Abduxuel snorting into his own drink and bursting into more laughter at Rin’s exclamation.

He was a lightweight! The one experience he’d had with alcohol had been the drink mix-up with Shura’s cheap booze.

“If you like that one, I’ll order another,” Mephisto said in a teasing croon, flicking a finger to tell Rin he should stay.

On the one hand, the last thing Rin wanted to do was embarrass himself in front of them because he got drunk too fast. On the other…

“I want to try as many as possible,” Rin said, pulse picking up. He was having one of the most exciting nights of his _life_ outside of something battle-related. The last thing he was going to do was hold back.

And, “I think I’m starting to get the hang of this!”

At least, he had understood why he’d been told to hit on the next move, tail twitching in concentration under his shirt.

Another round, and another round of drinks. Colors and lights swam in a comforting glow, everything brighter, a pleasant buzz rising in Rin to end at his heated face.

“Let’s call it quits here, Samael,” Abduxuel’s voice rose over the cloud in Rin’s head, “I want to go dancing.”

Dancing sounded like the best idea Rin had ever heard.

He pressed a kiss to Amaimon's cheek just as they vanished from the hall, leaving what he was sure were very confused humans behind.

"I don't like dancing," Amaimon grumbled, lids dropping over his eyes and clawed thumb coming to his mouth so he could gnaw on it.

"Dance with me, Amaimon." Rin pressed their foreheads together, body floating and wanting nothing more than to bring Amaimon up with him to his cloud.

Slit-pupils searched his face. They glowed, bright, even in the dark room filled with artificial neon. Amaimon nodded and let Rin pull him after Mephisto.

Music blasted loud enough to reverberate in Rin's chest, and bodies writhed with a chaotic energy Rin couldn't wait to jump into.

Ahead, Mephisto flashed them a wide grin, arm wound with Abduxuel’s like it was the most natural thing in the world.

They slid through the crowd, a pair of white rabbits for them to chase. Rin imagined he could see Mephisto's tail curling behind him like a lure in the black.

Then, at the beating heart of the club, they came to a stop, and Rin shivered despite the heavy atmosphere of smoke stinging his eyes and nose.

Two pairs of gleaming irises shone before turning to face each other.

His mouth went dry and he froze, stumbling against Amaimon as the crowds pushed them into each other.

Mephisto’s gloved hands trailed over Abduxuel, the space between them narrowing to a sliver of light from the beams racing over the room in time to the music and framing them in blinding rays.

He closed the distance, picking up the movements of the people around them and falling into the rhythm as Rin’s blood rushed in his ears.

Abduxuel let Mephisto lead, but each twist of their bodies together put more confidence into his motions until he met Mephisto move for move.

The thundering of Rin's heart eclipsed the other sensations filling him, a beat in time to the way their hips met with each beat of the song guiding them.

And Rin couldn't take it anymore.

"Amaimon," he said as he whirled to stare into gold eyes, knowing his own would be blue flares in his skull, fangs elongated in his mouth, hungering.

Heat flared next, the wave of the crowd jostling him flush to Amaimon where he dragged them closer still. Rin didn't know what he was doing, but he knew he wanted to burn the heat in his gut put there by the drinks. And he wanted Amaimon.

Amaimon saw his intent, and something sharpened in him, the apathy and boredom and irritation sloughing off with a slow blink of his eyes.

He moved, hands coming up to Rin's waist, claws adding an enticing prickle to the sensations running in an electric current straight through Rin's nerves.

Without a hint that he even noticed a single other person in the room, Amaimon began to dance against Rin.

His mind blanked, gaze pinned by Amaimon's, and unable to do anything but try to meet him.

Instincts drove Rin, the only thing keeping him from standing like a dumbstruck idiot the fact that…

Well, Amaimon's hips brushing his, matching him in a tantalizing rhythm, had become something familiar in recent weeks.

An urge erupted, brought out by the realization that he was already familiar with the steps to their dance.

Ducking his head to Amaimon's neck got him a deep rumble he felt more than heard over the pounding music.

Inhaling let Rin focus, taking Amaimon in as they picked up the pace.

It felt like a fight, the tension coiling with every drag of their bodies, every time Amaimon slid his hands over Rin reminding him of the lessons that always seemed to end up in one place nowadays.

Rin growled, panting in heavy, too fast breaths to Amaimon's skin. His fangs needled on the verge of breaking into the thrumming pulse that skipped at the suggestion of a bite.

Instead, Rin drew his lips along Amaimon's throat and over the sharp line of his jaw to take greedy tastes of the drink lingering on his tongue.

Amaimon returned the favor, nipping in teasing stings to his lips, the whole time dragging his hips in rocking motions that sent Rin’s pulse skyward. The world fell away, Rin left the cloud he’d been on to rise into the stratosphere where it got hard to breathe in the thin air that passed between them until he was lightheaded.

He buried his claws in Amaimon’s hair to lose himself in mapping out the inside of his mouth.

Twin presences entered their circle, taking Rin from drowning in Amaimon just as a pair of hands joined Amaimon’s in running down his spine to end in firm holds over the ones on his hips.

Mephisto nosed into the back of Rin’s neck, purr rumbling in a deep vibration that had Rin arching into him, breaking from Amaimon, though it only exposed his throat to sharp, demanding fangs.

“Samael,” and abruptly, Rin was pulled back down to earth, eyes flicking open to see green burning into him from behind Amaimon, “something’s not quite right here.”

Abduxuel’s words confused Rin, but he felt Mephisto smile against his skin, body falling into the rhythm Amaimon hadn’t paused with their arrival.

“I believe you’ve got my date in your arms,” Abduxuel said over the music, grin stretching to let his fangs glow in the blacklight.

“Huh?” Rin stuttered, mind catching up but struggling to breach the haze that hadn’t left yet.

“You’re right, love, how rude of us.” Mephisto already began to extract himself from his hold on Rin, squeezing Amaimon’s hands under his in an unspoken directive.

Rin found himself before Abduxuel as Mephisto spirited Amaimon away with a last caress to his spine over his tail and a ‘have fun’ thrown at them, lost in the crowd a moment later.

“That’s better,” Abduxuel murmured, heated body shifting along Rin’s and arms draped over his shoulders, “though we can hardly blame ourselves for getting distracted.”

The distraction was currently Abduxuel and the way he’d taken up Amaimon’s space, but Rin couldn’t seem to make his brain decide if it was a good distraction or a bad one.

Either because he’d picked up on the tangled thoughts in Rin’s head or had just flitted to the next thing to capture his sporadic attention, Abduxuel spoke again, "Samael has told me this is your first experience in places like these.”

It took Rin another second to collect himself as Abduxuel intertwined their fingers, bringing Rin’s hand to his mouth where he pressed his lips.

“Yeah, I don’t think I’m even technically allowed to be in these places yet.” He was pretty sure there were different drinking laws in America too, but he didn’t have a clue what they were and it would be the least illegal thing they did all night, anyway. That was much more something Yukio would worry about.

“You certainly take to it well,” Abduxuel said, adding a deliberate roll of his hips that Rin was sure was meant to imply multiple things but only had his mind fritzing on the first thing.

"I'd say you're a natural, even," he continued in that bright voice that was completely at odds with the dance he'd fallen into with Rin.

Rin's thanks got swallowed up as Abduxuel kept rambling, "Suppose we get another drink, hm?"

"Another drink?"

A card flashed before Rin's eyes before he recognized it as Mephisto's. Abduxuel waved it in a casual back and forth that Rin tracked.

"Why don't we begin our next venture at one of those bars I happened to catch sight of outside?"

The answer that tore from Rin came immediate and firm.

"No."

That was it. He glared, straightening his shoulders and digging his fingers to Abduxuel in warning.

Startled green eyes blinked down at him, apparently not understanding Rin's ire.

Flexing his grip once, Rin released Abduxuel and turned towards the crowded bar with a sharp motion to follow.

"Come on, let's get that drink. Here."

Walking off towards the bar didn't do much to calm Rin. His heart pounded, but it wasn't because of the music.

At least he could feel Abduxuel trailing after him, his presence heavy at his back. Maybe it was none of his business, like he'd said earlier, but that didn't mean Rin wasn't going to make a few things very clear.

Abduxuel met him at the line to the crowded bar, standing at his side while Rin waited with crossed arms. The line moved and it was their turn, Rin realizing he had no idea what to order but shrugging internally and saying, “I’ll get whatever you do.”

Drinks in hand after a moment, Rin led them to a table covered in empty cups by the wall and out of the way of the main crowd, though people still walked around the cramped space.

Finally, staring across the table at Abduxuel, Rin spoke.

“Let’s get one thing straight,” he said, to Abduxuel’s carefully blank expression, “I won’t ever ditch Mephisto or Amaimon without them knowing if I can help it. Got it?”

Even the thought of leaving them behind had his hackles rising. They didn’t have to live in each other’s pockets, but he wasn’t about to disappear without warning. Not unless he’d been forced to.

“And secondly,” Rin raised a finger pointedly, glare deepening, “why?”

It was Abduxuel’s turn to look taken-aback, cheerful demeanor wiped by Rin’s pointed question.

“Why?” His voice when he answered was barely louder than the crowd and Rin had to strain to catch the repetition.

“Yeah. Why would you leave them?” Rin wouldn’t let him slip away with some easy excuse and a laugh or a distraction like he had the other times. He’d just realized how every time he’d come close to the surface of whatever kept Abduxuel running like he was, he dragged them to a new location.

Running. He just kept running away.

Was this what Abduxuel had meant when he said they fought in the past? Was this what they fought about?

"Yes, I see now," green eyes closed, Abduxuel took a drink, "I'm awake, and already back to my bad habits."

"Bad habits?" Rin parroted back his words, frowning and copying him to swallow his own drink. It went down hard, but he wanted to shiver for another reason entirely.

"If there's one thing I am above all else, it's selfish." The hand not holding his drink waved over his head in a loose motion, like it was old news Abduxuel imparted.

It almost was at this point. Rin had both experienced and heard about demonic tendencies towards selfishness. Satan being the clearest example he could think of. But Abduxuel didn't look like he was talking about demons in the general sense.

His hand fell back to the table and Abduxuel seemed to deflate, caving in on himself with slumped shoulders and a smile that faded almost before it had formed.

"That's the nature of being a demon. That inherent selfishness. But I seem to have it in spades, more so than any other. At least more than Samael."

"What do you mean?" Rin prodded, eyes narrowed, as he tried to parse what he’d heard.

"I always wanted to have it all," Abduxuel glanced into the crowd like he searched for something, speaking on a sigh, "To wander free, and to have him by my side."

Rin didn't know what he could say to Abduxuel. Not when they both knew he couldn't have it both ways.

“I think,” Abduxuel said, finally looking back at Rin, “I’m ready to turn in for the night.”

He agreed.

They turned and waded through the crowd until Mephisto and Amaimon appeared before them, wound together but parting at their arrival.

As soon as they had, Abduxuel attached himself to Mephisto, the movement both perfectly natural--like two puzzle pieces slotting in place--and forced, Abduxuel clinging in a way that even Rin could see.

He looked smaller, shrinking as if hiding under Mephisto's wing.

Mephisto picked up on it immediately, eyes bright over the top of Abduxuel's head where he stared at Rin.

Without a word, Mephisto snapped and took them back outside. Sirens and the sounds of a city at night seemed quiet compared to the club, and Rin drew in a deep breath as he came down from the high.

“Where can one get the best view of the skyline here, Samael?” Abduxuel broke from where he’d burrowed his nose to Mephisto’s neck, looking up at the stars Rin could just make out past the vast lights of the city. “Will you take us there?”

"Yes, I should be able to manage that," Mephisto murmured.

Again, they vanished. When they reappeared, it was far above the noise, and Rin gasped, blinded.

He clenched his eyes closed, black spots dancing in his vision even after he thought he'd adjusted.

"Samael," Amaimon hissed, clearly not amused by the spot he'd taken them to.

"This is one of the pinnacles of human ingenuity, Amaimon," came the cheerful reply, "You should enjoy it."

"I think I just swallowed a moth, Samael. Let's move further from this insect beacon, hm?"

A scoff and grumble about unappreciative demons fell from Mephisto's mouth, but he took them away. This time when Rin opened his eyes, blinking to clear the tears from them, he saw a blanket of lights stretching for miles around.

And above them a constant buzz reached Rin's ears.

"Holy shit," Rin said, gaping as he tried to understand the scope of the thing they floated beneath. Already, his eyes watered and he had to look away again. "Were we on that just now?"

The beaming smile from Mephisto might have matched the brilliance of the pillar of light breaking into the sky above them as he answered, "Yes! Welcome to the Luxor Skybeam."

"They've built a glass pyramid and put enough electricity in it to rival one of Lucifer's miniature tantrums," Abduxuel said and laughed, mood clearing with the modern marvel Mephisto had presented them with.

"And brought every insect in the area here," Amaimon added, picking a moth out of his hair.

Their new position put them on one of the massive glass panes beneath the cap at the top. Rin didn't question the power keeping them from sliding straight down the side, settling back on his hands to relax.

Dry wind ruffled through his hair like a touch, one Rin was sure would be warm if he could feel it.

An actual touch startled him, Mephisto collapsing at his side and making himself comfortable as Rin made room for him under his arm.

Amaimon had spread out on the glass, eyes closed and apparently content to sleep right there.

And Abduxuel floated out, away from the side of the pyramid, his gaze locked on the shifting sea of lights below. He looked like Mephisto in that moment, illuminated in the dark.

"Thank you, Rin," Mephisto murmured, voice soft against him where he pressed. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Rin said, nudging at Mephisto's head, "but for what?"

All he'd done was get to know Abduxuel a little bit, try to attack him, and stuck his nose in personal business with his typical lack of social awareness Yukio always got onto him about.

His ears picked up a long breath exhaling from Abduxuel, Rin watching as he twisted his head to smile back at them, wide enough to crinkle his eyes, just as Mephisto answered.

"Never doubt, Rin, that you are the reason this is all possible. I was too selfish, Amaimon too frightened, Abduxuel too flighty. Without you this would have all ended in tragedy."

Oh. Warmth curled in Rin's chest, creeping out through his own smile and the purrs vibrating with each breath between their bodies.

This time, when Abduxuel came to rest at Mephisto's other side, Rin released the remainders of his hesitance.

The night stretched before them, and Rin let it absorb him, and he was happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You could say they've got a few things to work on XD Once again, idk how it took me like a month and a half to get through this thing except that it's been non-stop busy irl and I'm surprised I had any time at all to write T.T
> 
> Just one more chapter and then that wraps up the BRS and its sides~ I have a long in the future fic planned for this series but it's going to be way down the road for after aoex wraps up too so I can see what Kato has planned for after the events of the series lol 
> 
> But until then, I'm going to be working on a fun little (haaaaaaa) quarantine one shot au after the next chapter of this and THEN the coffee shop/plant shop au with a twist (and hopefully after that I'll be able to start up Incandescence again lmao).
> 
> Hope you guys enjoyed seeing my bastard oc in his debut :D


	3. Welcome to the Twenty-First Century

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are settling down, but beneath still waters lie riptides to wade through and new roles to fill. Yukio just wants Rin to focus in class, Mephisto thinks of a solution.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes: As of July 25, 2019 I’ve had a huge snippet of this chapter written, waiting for me to connect to it XD It’s been a long time coming lololol This thing ended up at 73 pages. I’m not surprised, just disappointed, somebody stop my sinful hands lmao
> 
> Also! There’s a ton of extra stuff hiding in this chapter but I stuck that all at the end so I don’t spoil anyone ;D
> 
> Happy reading~
> 
> Song(s) of the Chapter: 
> 
> First Person on Earth by Robert DeLong
> 
> Everybody Loves Me by One Republic
> 
> (and the playlist I made on Spotify is just called Abduxuel if you guys wanna have a listen to the rest of the ones that made it on there~) 
> 
> https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0pqXbgUafcYKq9ekXuSvcT?si=3x5TeRWBTvqoS1pRs84tXA
> 
> And OMG GUYS!!!! FANART AHHH!!! I keep looking at this beautiful Meph/Abdi and wanting to cry T.T
> 
> Check it out: 
> 
> <https://redweed.tumblr.com/post/629637103374974976/thebeingofeverything>  
> 

Rin bounced in place, rolling his ankles as he waited for Yukio to finish his end-of-mission instructing.

“And make sure to get that bump on your head checked out today, Miss Moriyama.”

Done!

He waved as his friends left before turning to Yukio and chirping, “Now you gotta report, right, Yukio?”

“Yes,” Yukio said after a while, a crinkle forming at the bridge of his nose that spoke of a hidden sigh. “It’s best to verbally report immediately after a mission while the information is fresh, then make a written report later for records.”

“Great! I’ll come with,” Rin said, already moving ahead to lead.

Yukio did sigh then, moving after Rin, but it didn’t dampen his mood any.

His heart picked up in anticipation, half wishing they could have just used a key to get there. Well, they could have, given he had a key to Mephisto’s office around his neck. Yukio remained insistent that it wasn’t proper for them to just show up in his office when he might be in the middle of a meeting, though, so they were stuck walking.

“Rin,” the call of his name had him blinking back at Yukio with a questioning hum. He saw the frown pulling at Yukio’s lips and cocked his head, waiting for him to speak. “I know you’re...you know. But you really should show some kind of professionalism. He is our superior.”

Now Rin frowned, too. “What do you mean? Professional how?”

“Er, you know,” Yukio started, flushing until his cheeks were noticeably red, “just--limiting the-the uh, _touching_ to when you’re both off the clock.”

Snickering erupted from Rin before he could stop himself, and he waved his hand to Yukio’s affronted expression until he could calm his laughter, saying, “Hey, if he didn’t think it was cool he would have said something by now.”

If anything, Rin was sure Mephisto enjoyed the appalled looks they got from certain people, namely Angel. The paladin got infuriated just seeing them in the same room together, let alone showing affection. Given the distinctly anti-demon attitude the bastard took, Rin didn’t really care if one more thing about them upset his sensibilities.

Mephisto later explained it as Angel having got it in his mind that they’d made up the cure to the curse and were in some elaborate con to convince innocent humans that demons were capable of real emotion.

Rin had been sure to leave an extra long kiss for Mephisto on his way out to his cram classes the rest of the day. The gritting teeth from Angel could be heard all the way through the video screen.

Besides, Rin knew Mephisto liked the overt attention. Every demon seemed to, now that he thought about it, himself included.

In his distraction, they made it to the doors of the office, Yukio knocking politely while Rin rocked on his heels, bounding forward the second he heard Mephisto speak.

“Mephisto!” Rin said the name in greeting, inhaling the scent he couldn’t seem to get enough of these days as he made it around the desk to Mephisto’s side.

Said desk was strewn with more paperwork than Rin usually saw it with, some of it looking wrinkled, others shoved as far to the corner as they could go. Like Mephisto didn't want to look at it if he could help it.

One of his figurines was missing a head. Rin couldn’t tell if it was hidden under a pile of paper somewhere or was gone entirely.

“Hello, Rin. Tagging along for the report, I see,” Mephisto responded with a light caress of his hand to the back of Rin’s. It brought a frown to Rin’s face, something distracted about the move that pricked at his mind.

“Yes, Sir, sorry, Sir.” Yukio’s formality came out stiff, and Rin hid a sigh at the discomfort he still couldn’t seem to overcome.

“And? How did this one go, Mr. Okumura?” Mephisto said as he ignored the flick of Yukio’s gaze to anywhere but them.

“We arrived at our point…” Rin stopped listening, focused more on the absent motion of Mephisto’s finger to his knuckles. The repetitive touch settled him, though he hadn't been gone anywhere near long enough for his instincts to start screaming about a fading claim.

It was the human half of him that just enjoyed being home.

The demon half wanted the foreign scents off his body--and the ones he could smell on Mephisto off, too.

Shaking his head to free himself from the chain of thought still didn't mean Rin wanted to pay attention to the recap. Instead, his gaze drifted the room, wondering why something felt off today.

Was it the space? The room itself? He scented the air out again, then did a double-take. Mephisto noticed his shock, Rin's heart having tripped in a way Yukio's report wouldn't have caused.

Claws stopped their repetitive pattern to his hand and Rin glanced to catch an equally as quick flash of green his way.

"And we made it home without further complication," Yukio finished. He waited, straight-backed and shoulders squared.

"I see efforts to integrate Rin's new abilities have come along well," the grin on Mephisto's face was his typical one Rin could never tell if he meant to intimidate or comfort the recipient.

"Yes sir."

"Good. Thank you, Mr. Okumura, you're free to go."

"Rin?" Yukio started.

"I'll be by for dinner in a little bit, ok, Yukio?" Rin answered the unspoken question, watching him leave with another nod until the door clicked.

He found himself vanished to appear seated in Mephisto's lap, arms wound across his middle and a nose burrowed to his neck.

"It's good to be home."

By the steady inhale from Mephisto, Rin would say he agreed. But it was more than Rin expected.

"Something wrong?" he tested the waters, "Your desk is more of a mess than usual and…"

Mephisto had tensed a bit, though it was only because Rin was looking for the reaction that he noticed.

"You don't smell like Abduxuel a whole lot. I can barely pick him up."

The smell--metal igniting and something more Rin couldn't describe--always made his nose itch when he caught it. He spent half the time in his presence chasing it and the other half trying not to sneeze.

"Yes, that," the words muffled into Rin, Mephisto not raising his head for another few breaths. When he did, that strain was back. “He’s been determined to catch up with the twenty-first century all at once and has gone exploring.”

“What?” Rin yelped, jerking to see carefully empty eyes looking at him. “He’s still gone?”

“Yes.” Cold, like Mephisto didn’t like admitting the fact that _apparently_ Abduxuel had been gone longer than even Rin. Not long enough for their claim on each other to fade, but to stretch it to discomfort, yeah.

“I don’t understand.” He didn’t. Not when Abduxuel had the ability to appear wherever he wanted. If he wanted to explore the world, nothing was holding him back. Just like nothing was holding him back from coming home, even if only for an hour. He was the king of space, there wasn’t anywhere he couldn’t go if he wanted to.

“He has ever been a wanderer,” a sigh and shrug, like it made any more sense that way. “Getting my other half to stay in place for longer than a week is just one of those Sisyphean tasks better off not taken.”

Not that Rin knew what a sis-whatever task was, but he could see that Mephisto had given up the fight, probably somewhere in the long ago history he’d come through with Abduxuel.

But _Rin_ wasn’t tired yet. “Where is he now?”

Did Mephisto even know? Or had Abduxuel not communicated that, either.

“Ah, his territory,” Mephisto said, short, “In Gehenna.”

Right. That was enough for Rin.

“I’m grabbing Amaimon and we’re going to find him.”

A hand caught him, Rin already half out of Mephisto’s grasp before he turned, getting a tightening of fingers to his.

“We’ll be ok, don’t worry.” Rin cocked a wry smile at Mephisto. “We got through that place before, we’ll be fine making a quick trip. I’ll text you.”

“This isn’t really necessary, Rin.”

By the way Mephisto’s heartbeat had gone perfectly steady, unnaturally so, Rin knew going after Abduxuel was exactly what he had to do. Mephisto had the habit of hiding any sign of weakness, even now. It was another one of those things Rin understood, whether because of his human or demon half, or both, he didn’t know. What he did know was that avoiding things wouldn’t lead anywhere good.

The kiss he placed on Mephisto was as full of assurance as he could manage. His claim, a warming bulwark.

Rin left, head bowed like he stalked towards unwitting prey, flames burning under his ribs in low embers.

* * *

Gehenna breathed around them and the energy of the place welled in trails through the air that Rin stared at as he adjusted.

“We’re on the outskirts of his territory,” Amaimon said beside him, gaze following the same trails Rin’s did.

They’d be moving on foot, Amaimon unable to take them further past the wards in place that Rin thought he could pick out now. The familiarity with Abduxuel’s specific energy signature and Rin’s increasing comfort with his own abilities let him see something distinctly “Abduxuel” ahead. He’d be hard-pressed to describe it to any of his human friends, though.

Nodding at Amaimon, they took off, launching over strange mountains in shapes that Rin couldn’t place. A fog drifted between them, damp enough to leave water trickling along his skin, tugged by the air they blew through.

He couldn’t feel the temperature, but it must have been warmer than Lucifer’s territory because Amaimon wasn’t shivering.

“Are we gonna run into anything here?” Rin called out. He almost hoped the answer was ‘yes’, itching to expend some of the energy buzzing at his fingertips.

Not that Rin knew, exactly, what he was going to do or say once they reached Abduxuel. But he didn’t want whatever he went with ending up in flames, unless Abduxuel gave him a reason.

His eyes narrowed, unable to decide what mood he was in, caught between the tension just being in Gehenna created, their purpose, and the comfort and familiarity of Amaimon’s presence.

If he ignored that neither had Mephisto in their arms, they could have been right back at the start of their journey to break a curse neither knew the cure for on a very tight schedule.

“No, not likely,” Amaimon grumbled, looking as put out as Rin felt. “He’s the same as Samael, Lucifer, and Azazel. Not many of his kin exist to populate his territory.”

“And the ones that are…” he trailed off, eyelids drooping further. “You’ll see.”

That sounded foreboding but, given the little he knew of Abduxuel, really, anything was possible.

"Did you know he was gone so long?" the question slipped out from Rin, a quick glance showing him Amaimon refusing to look his way.

"It's who he is."

The eventual response just hardened Rin's resolve. He let out a short sound, going back to their usual quiet routine.

At least they moved faster now that Rin wasn’t hindered by a seal, the miles flying by as they fell into rhythm. They stayed that way until Rin’s ears twitched when faint sounds reached him, carried by the wind.

“What is that?” he asked once they closed the distance and the sounds began to grow distinguished.

A heavier sigh and Amaimon’s expression deadened. “He’s already started.”

Before Rin could try puzzling that one out, the source of the strange sounds appeared on the next horizon. The mountains parted into a deep bowl that fell into depths Rin couldn’t see and rose above his head to part the clouds.

There wasn’t an overall scheme to it, it didn’t have any rhyme or reason to the chaos. Instead, structures that looked like they’d been pulled from all periods of time carved themselves into the mountains, strung up like they’d been tossed there and might fall any minute.

“Woah,” Rin breathed, landing on a peak overlooking the expanse of Abduxuel’s central territory. Fog filled the area, drifting between buildings that exuded sounds and lights to cast eerie shadows in the scattered water-particles.

And amongst it all were demons.

Creatures Rin had never seen before slid through the fog, appearing from thin air to dart from place to place. Even from their distance, the dark rasping voices rose to join what Rin was just realizing was music.

One sound erupted above the rest, a shrill boom that sent him wincing and his heart thudding. Through the fog, a dark shape lunged up from the abyss.

"Is that a train?" Rin yelped, hands clenched to his ears and trying to understand what was currently winding its way in a maddening trail between buildings.

"It's a ghost train,"Amaimon scowled, probably because of the noise, too, "a type of demon that passes between Gehenna and Assiah, ferrying souls on its insides."

"Why is it here?" Seriously. Why would something so crazy be loose in the middle of Abduxuel's place? It barely scraped past some of the cobbled-together walls! The one he'd dealt with at the Academy had been bad enough.

"Never mind, let's just go find him, please."

Thinking about it, Rin wasn't sure it would make sense anyway. Amaimon shrugged and leapt to the roof of a structure, taking them higher until they reached the pinnacle.

Wraith-like shadows blurred at the edges of Rin's vision as they bled through the doors. A chill drove into his chest, hackles rising at the effect and flames surging to beat them back before they pierced his core.

Hissing sent the shapes fritzing like an old TV screen, something approaching panic appearing in their movements before they darted away to leave the entrance clear.

"Good," Amaimon said, then shoved to open the dark, reflective doors that could have been made from some kind of metal or stone. It reminded Rin of the obelisk that Mephisto and Amaimon had created as Abduxuel's memorial before he'd had a miraculous revival.

Without the doors acting as a block, sound hit him like a pressurized wave Rin tentatively labeled as music. He'd had time to prepare himself, keeping his wince mostly internal as they made their way inside.

Immediately, the demons inside swept them in along with the tide. Flashes of color as hectic as that night in Vegas made it hard to distinguish the parts of the crowd pouring from the wide room.

Rin stayed at Amaimon's side through sheer force, giving up on maneuvering to just push past the bodies in his way

He didn't watch for all the obstacles. A solid form met his foot, and a sharp cry had Rin jerking to see a small white rabbit in a vivid red, gold, and blue jacket.

And it was shaking its little paw at him with fury in its red eyes.

"Sorry!" Rin shouted above the music. He gestured, hands out to calm the rabbit and possibly bring it off the ground before one of the other million demons around them crushed it instead.

Awareness seemed to enter the red eyes staring up at him as long ears perked at attention. The rabbit vanished in a curl of smoke.

"What?" Rin tried to say as Amaimon grabbed his wrist to keep them moving.

Bodies writhed in what Rin couldn't tell was supposed to be dancing or fighting or just moving around the massive room. He thought the walls might have been a deep blue, but it was hard to see through the smoke exhaled from various laughing mouths. The scent burned his nose and made it impossible to find Abduxuel in the mess.

Were those demons _eating_ each other? Rin's gaze tracked the violent snap of fangs as Amaimon dragged him onward. Eating or--Rin flushed and averted his eyes.

They drew to a halt, Rin pressed to Amaimon's back at the sudden stop as he stared at what had arrived ahead.

Dozens of white rabbits, all in the decorative robes of the first he'd accidentally kicked, parted the crowd in an ethereal stream. Trailing them…

"Amaimon, king of earth." A demon walked between the rabbits, ornate robes over a slim body and brilliant golden hair stole Rin's entire focus, his brain short-circuiting when he locked on the face. "And my prince."

Purple eyes lowered beneath long lashes as the demon bowed. It just let Rin focus on the other very apparent features. The large rabbit ears falling forward over the demon's narrow shoulders had his fingers twitching in an abortive move to see if they were as soft as they looked.

"Allow me to escort you to my king."

Well, at least they didn't have to shove anyone aside anymore. The rabbits did that for them, a strange entourage at their feet.

It allowed Rin to see farther than the next person ahead of him, though, the layout of the area taking shape.

Everything seemed to be one flat level where they walked, but towards the back, steps led to a higher platform overlooking the entire space.

There, seated on a throne like a galaxy condensed into definable shape, sat their target. Rin resisted jumping straight up to Abduxuel to stay at Amaimon’s side. But just barely. Embers in his core flared once before he could control the reaction, getting Rin a side-eye from Amaimon and a straightening of the rabbit demon’s shoulders, though it--he? Rin couldn’t tell, the voice was masculine, but--maintained the same even pace.

Rin saw the moment Abduxuel spotted them as they reached the front of the crowd. Rabbits spilled over the steps, scattering out of their way to leave the path open.

Other demons lounged or stood around Abduxuel, watching with open interest as they made their way closer.

Green eyes glowed, Abduxuel’s face empty for a moment while Rin steeled his nerves.

Then a wide smile broke the expression, taking Rin aback as Abduxuel vanished from the throne. An arm draped itself over his shoulder, its twin tugging at Amaimon until they both found themselves wrapped in a side-embrace.

“Amaimon!” Abduxuel’s scent and bright laughter distracted Rin completely, mood thrown as a hand ruffled his hair, “and Rin! You both made it!”

“Made it?” Rin managed to stutter as they vanished again, this time along with Abduxuel, to the throne.

“This is wonderful!” Abduxuel said as he released them to turn, hands on his hips and beaming.

“Wonderful?” his voice echoed with the question in it, trying to figure out what was going on.

“Yes!” Abduxuel didn’t seem to notice how lost Rin was, “I’ve got to show you around while you’re here. You’ve never seen this corner of Gehenna.”

There hadn't exactly been time for exploring then.

And Satan. He still had Satan to worry about now.

"I'd wondered how this place fared without my presence and, thanks to Samael, it's exactly as I left it!" Pride filled Abduxuel's voice as he surveyed the crowd not so secretly eyeing them down.

"So of course I had to celebrate."

Ah, so that was where the party came from. Music thumped in time with Rin's pulse, drawing him in the same way their night in Vegas had. The demons held at bay by Abduxuel watched with glittering eyes and anticipation, like they waited for a signal to tell them they could approach.

Mouth suddenly dry, Rin licked at his lips and stared up into Abduxuel's easy smile.

Commotion behind him broke the hypnosis.

"Rin!"

"Hey, don't go up there! You want to die? Stupid hare."

Rin turned just as a small rabbit broke from the sea of bodies and launched itself up the stairs.

Wait…

The blonde-haired demon who'd guided them reached, hand outstretched as if to call the rabbit back, something like fear putting lines across the glacial features.

A cloud of smoke erupted around the rabbit and Rin knew who it was.

"Usamaro!"

A body slammed to him, but Rin was ready with his arms already wrapping the small form closer. Incredulous laughter broke from his chest, throat tight and a prickling starting in the corners of his eyes.

"You're here, you're alive. You're _alive_."

In his arms, Usamaro trembled, delicate shoulders hunched as he squeezed himself as close as he could. Tears coupled with the scent Rin recognized after spending that short time leading up to the festival night no one but him seemed to remember bringing him to hold tighter.

He rubbed at the ornate robes, comforting Usamaro as much as himself and burrowing his nose to the soft hair that used to tickle him in his sleep.

Following the shock of Usamaro's appearance came the instincts Rin had just become aware of with his awakening. Power seeped in a gentle wave from his core, searching out Usamaro.

His power met a sudden roadblock.

Two claims latched to Usamaro already, shaking Rin from his head as he came back to the present.

"How are you alive?" he said, pushing his instincts back to draw away.

Usamaro's crumpled expression met him as Rin gave into the urge to brush his claws through the mussed bangs.

"I came back here," Usamaro said, sniffling as he leaned his face into Rin's touch, letting him swipe the tear-tracks from his ruddy cheeks, tracing over the light purple marks there. "After I lost my vessel in Assiah and died. It took a long time, but I've got a new vessel now."

"Why didn't you come home?"

Why hadn't he returned to Rin?

New tears poured from Usamaro that Rin tried to shush as words stumbled thickly from him, "I caused so much trouble, why would you want me back?"

"Idiot," Rin growled immediately, flicking one of the strange, rabbit-ear shaped buns Usamaro kept his hair in. "You're mine-"

Cutting himself off didn't stop Usamaro from breaking into a wobbling smile, head dropping back to Rin's shoulder as he dug his little claws into the front of his shirt.

" _Fascinating_ ," Abduxuel said, reminding Rin he had an audience.

Sound rushed back in and Rin jerked to see Abduxuel peering at him, at where he held Usamaro. _His_ claim was the one Rin nearly covered with his own.

Amaimon shifted, gaze locked onto Usamaro in a way that had Rin hiding a protective growl, knowing it wasn't going to help.

"How did you come to meet one of my kin?"

"His name's Usamaro," Rin said to straighten things out, "and Mephisto gave him to me because I messed up a mission and let one of those trains loose at the academy."

"Released-" Abduxuel fell into laughter, "it sounds like Samael meant it as punishment."

"It wasn't his idea." Memories of the festival night dragged themselves to the forefront of Rin's mind as he winced, sheepish. "He wanted to kill Usamaro but I told him I'd watch him until they could seal him again because I kinda broke his shrine."

And then he'd lost Usamaro, seemingly forever, when the little demon had been forced to stop the wave of coal tars overwhelming the city, devouring them along with everyone's memories of the night.

Only Rin had been left with the knowledge that, for a short time, he'd had something like a little brother who relied on him, who'd sacrificed himself for Rin.

"I see," the considering hum from Abduxuel had Rin frowning, "so, for a short while, at least, he was yours."

"Yeah," Rin trailed off, not sure where Abduxuel was going.

"Well, I see no reason you can't keep him."

The meaning hit Rin, Usamaro close behind and gasping, trembles stunned into stillness.

"Wait," Rin shook himself from the instincts pressing with insistence at his mind, "I can't--there's another--that other demon has one on him too. I can't just-"

"Ah, you're sweet, Rin," Abduxuel said, snickering again, "Such a minor claim doesn't really matter."

"Yes it does," Rin dug his heels in, "is that demon here? Can I ask them?"

Surprised blinking met him before Abduxuel's gaze slid to a point behind Rin.

"Well, it won't be a problem, if you insist on it. Chang'e, why don't you call your nephew here."

Behind Abduxuel, a woman rose from her watchful position. Rin flushed to the points of his ears when he realized what--or what she _wasn't_ \--wearing.

Sheer clothing covered about as much as Iblis' outfit had, though in lightly-colored strips layered like spider silk over the powerful form instead of the vivid red Iblis preferred.

"Thank you, my king," came the rich voice that didn't help Rin's composure in the slightest. The hint of a tease in her words and ripples of dark hair falling in a tumble over bared shoulders with her bow towards Rin deepened the heat in his cheeks as she spoke to him next.

"You're gracious for someone so young, my prince," equally as dark eyes cut across to the space behind him like Abduxuel's had, "unlike a certain nephew of mine."

"Huh?" he stammered, feeling what he was sure was laughter contained in Usamaro's chest where it shook against his.

Even with the mocking kept silent by so many other strong demons, Rin was abruptly reminded about what a brat Usamaro could be.

"Yes, Bosatsu?" The blonde demon arrived, ears twitching once in the only sign of his momentary break in composure.

"Our young prince has a request of you, Konzen."

Drooping purple eyes once again slid to Rin, cool, empty of any emotion and waiting.

"My prince?" Even the voice lacked the fear Rin had heard earlier, like he'd buried it under layers of impenetrable ice.

"Er, Konzen?" Rin fumbled his way over the syllables of the demon's name, still not used to any kind of honorific applied to him as he tried to collect himself. "I don't want to take Usamaro from you or anything, I just wanted to know if you'd be ok with him coming to Assiah every now and then to visit."

Pupils pinning in widened eyes betrayed Konzen's shock as his mouth parted to gape at Rin. His throat clicked on a swallow, jaw working silently before he could answer.

"Well, that's certainly not expected, is it, Konzen?" Abduxuel murmured, finger tapping at his chin beneath a broadening smile.

"Such remarkable mercy," Bosatsu said, something that sounded testing in the undercurrent of her words. "What will you say to our prince, hm?"

Another beat. Konzen closed his eyes, gruff when he answered, "Yeah, sure. When he's not working on his duties I don't care where he goes."

Squirming from Usamaro had Rin looking to see what he thought might be new tears forming.

He tugged at Rin's shirt, biting at his lips as Rin leaned in.

"Can you put me down, Rin," he whispered, wiggling as Rin complied and straightening his uniform. Then he peered up beneath his bangs where he stood in front of Konzen.

"Thank you, Lord Konzen."

It was Rin's turn to be surprised. He'd never seen Usamaro display _anything_ close to respect before.

"Don't mention it."

Somehow, the short response had Usamaro grinning, a brilliant smile that Konzen couldn't seem to look at.

Rin accepted Usamaro as he jumped to his arms. This time, when his instincts rose, he listened and let his claim spread in a blue wave that settled across the other two, nestling them around Usamaro's core.

But he wasn't finished yet. Grinning at the innate satisfaction of feeling that Usamaro was alive and here and not just a memory, Rin pressed their foreheads together.

"You too, Usamaro," Rin said, tapping a claw to his chest where his demonic heart would be floating if he'd revealed it.

"O-oh," the stammer faltered under Rin's steady direction until Usamaro snapped from his awe and a claim as soft as rabbit-fur joined the others warming Rin's core.

Then it was over.

Fighting his blush at making a scene was difficult, but Rin thought he kept the worst of it at bay when he faced around again after a last nod of thanks to Konzen.

"That was certainly the highlight of the night," Abduxuel said, absolutely unhelpful to Rin getting his embarrassment under control. "Why don't we get back to the main event."

He'd already begun to turn when Rin reached out to grab his wrist.

"Wait." Any other time, Rin would have allowed Abduxuel to sweep him into the chaos, but not when he'd come there for a reason.

Amaimon stayed silent, gaze tracking the raised brow on Abduxuel and Rin's firm grip.

"I came here for something else. Can we go talk somewhere?"

A slow nod answered him before Rin loosened his grip and brought it to rest on Usamaro's head. "Hey, I'm gonna head back to Assiah soon. When you can, come visit, huh? We'll get the others together and play baseball again."

Usamaro must have sensed the seriousness, though he accepted the hug Rin left him with. He let himself down to the floor, claws grasping shortly to Rin's pants before scampering off as if escaping into the crowd he'd leapt from.

The woman had bowed out, leaving just the three of them and Rin's next move.

"I'm ready if you are," Rin said to two pairs of watchful eyes.

Abduxuel snapped and took them away, Rin's ears ringing in the sudden quiet. He didn't think they were even in Abduxuel's territory anymore, not unless they'd been taken to somewhere completely cut off, because he couldn't hear anything of the chaos they'd been in.

"You didn't come just because there happened to be a party going on."

Green glowed in the dark surroundings, and Rin sucked in a silent breath, preparing for the battle ahead.

"No. I just got back from a mission," gotten back from a mission and, "then I went to see Mephisto for the report."

A frown pulled at his mouth with his recounting, trying to see if mentioning Mephisto made something happen--meant anything at all.

Nothing. Abduxuel cocked his head, waiting for him to continue. Seemingly clueless.

"I noticed some stuff," Rin said, eyes narrowing, "like his favorite figurine is missing a head, and his desk is a mess."

The ball stayed in his court, Amaimon could have been made of stone. Rin knew he didn't think he'd get what they'd come for.

"And," most damning of all, "he barely smells like you right now. I don't think I could have picked it up if I wasn't looking."

"Ah."

Silence, except for that small utterance.

Fangs fought to drop in Rin's mouth but he'd control himself because he refused to mess things up this time. Not something so important.

"So I asked Amaimon to take me _here_ to find _you_ ," he said, hissing repressed, but he thought Abduxuel could hear where it would be by the way he stilled, sensing the danger.

“And I just gotta know one thing.” Why did it feel like he was repeating himself? Hadn’t they had this conversation the night in Vegas? “Why?”

_Why why why?_

None of it made any _sense_ to Rin.

If he’d thought it would get through to Abduxuel, he was proven wrong when the blank expression hardened. Abduxuel’s mask of carelessness shattered like the thin veneer it was made from. Then it wasn’t just Rin exuding danger.

“Are we attached at the hip? This isn’t exactly a long span of time in the scheme of things, as Samael would say.”

Rin’s stomach dropped, stunned and grasping for what he could even respond with to the callous statement. Of course they weren’t attached at the hip! But this was more than that. Rin ached just imagining the threadbare claim he’d seen between them--the same he could see fraying around Abduxuel’s core now.

"You can go home whenever you want," Rin's lips trembled, a burning frustration welling in his chest. "You can go _wherever_ you want."

Abduxuel's eyes blazed in his skull, a cold fire that matched Rin's.

"So what's stopping you?" Had he shouted? Rin didn't think so. But with the condemnation in the silence of the room, he might as well have roared.

“I gave him a key!” Abduxuel did roar.

Fangs bared themselves at Rin beneath a twisted mouth on inhuman features.

Amaimon shrunk back, guarded and wary between the electric energy lashing from Abduxuel.

And Rin stood, stunned under the unleashed emotion.

"You-"

“I gave him a key and told him where I was," Abduxuel snarled out from rows of serrated teeth while Rin tried to catch up to what he was saying.

“Why should Samael’s inaction reflect on _me?_ Am I not my own aspect?”

He was. He was his own aspect. Rin's pulse rushed past his ears, claws extended on defensive instinct as his mind flashed back to everything he'd learned about Mephisto and Abduxuel and their relationship.

The void yawned before him, swallowing even the dim light from struggling fixtures until the only thing he could see was the fury bearing down in a dark wave.

"Who are _you_ to say how I should act towards _my_ other half?"

Gravity pressed in on Rin, a flash of power that squeezed with the weight of an endless expanse.

"When is it Samael's turn to come to _me?_ "

His core collapsed in on itself, hardening into a protective sphere under the force of space brought to bear.

One question slipped from Rin before he could think.

"Does he know?"

In all of their lives together, in the countless years where they'd been closer than any amongst the Ba'al, had they ever-

"Have you told him?"

-Had they ever said _any_ of it to each other?

"We-" Abduxuel started, lost his snarl, the wind ripped from his wings to leave him plummeting as his power receded, snuffed out. "I-"

"Maybe," Rin said, breath shuddering from aching lungs that could suddenly expand again, "you should tell him that, what you just told me. _Then_ give him a key."

Abduxuel's warped visage met Rin, and he thought a whimper escaped.

Shaking himself, Rin held off the nerves that tried to tell him he needed to attack now that he had a chance.

"If you want to stay here, I won't make you come back with us."

Rin looked to Amaimon, nodding.

"I'm done, Amaimon. We can go home, now."

He'd come without knowing what he'd find, what reasoning was behind the frayed claim between Mephisto and Abduxuel.

It wasn't something he could fix.

Amaimon reached him, quiet still as they prepared for the journey out of Abduxuel's territory.

With a last, heavy stare, Rin sighed, a long exhale through his nose.

They turned, heading towards the door, Abduxuel rooted in place.

" _Wait_."

Abduxuel's voice rasped across the distance, setting off a spark in Rin's heart as he jerked around.

Fingers ran in circles over Abduxuel's chest, and everything about him seemed lesser.

His ears drooped, a fragile smile that tried to be one of his usual boisterous ones tugged at his mouth.

"Wait," he whispered again, and the spark grew in Rin.

"You-" Abduxuel cut off, tongue darting over his lips until he composed himself with a shiver- "you see things very clearly, for a creature so young, Rin Okumura."

The words had Amaimon stiffening and Rin releasing the beginnings of a widening smile.

"Please allow me to take you to Samael," he said hesitantly, carefully, as if Rin would stop him. "Please let me come back with you."

Smiling in full then, cheeks hurting with trying to keep the giddiness at bay, Rin bumped his hip to Amaimon's and answered, "Yeah, if you want, I'd love that."

Mission accomplished.

Abduxuel snapped, taking them home.

* * *

Mephisto stared after Rin until the soft click of the door closing jerked him from his daze.

Right, he had to think about which possible branch of the timeline they might head down because of Rin's choice.

There were really only two major outcomes--a third, if things ended spectacularly bad and Rin wound up beseiged by Father and Lucifer's side.

But that was the most unlikely path of the three, and Lucifer would be hesitant to approach Rin as he was now. The thought brought a smile to Mephisto, purr hidden in his chest, at the power Rin wielded and the way it made even Lucifer wary.

Yes, he'd be savoring the expressions he'd witnessed on Lucifer and Egyn's faces the day Rin had _buried_ them in a wave of his Gehenna flame to make a very clear point.

He shivered, tucking the memory away to bring out later, possibly when Rin returned.

Which led him to the next two most likely outcomes. Mephisto scowled. Either he would be comforting a defeated Rin and probably morose Amaimon after they failed to get Abduxuel out of Gehenna or-

Mephisto rubbed his hand to his chest as if he could soothe the tatters of his claim bond.

-Or he'd be dealing with another beast entirely.

How many times had he gotten to this point? Or past it, when the ache of the decaying bond would send him lashing out at the smallest irritation, straining countless plans with his worsening mood.

How many times had Abduxuel appeared right before he couldn't take it anymore, half-feral with his own frayed bond, and their reclaiming more akin to a brutal fight than anything approaching gentle.

Already, an emotion Mephisto couldn't name twisted in his gut.

Would today end as so many previous days had?

The pen in his hand shattered, sending green, glittery gel to coat his fingers. A droplet hit his face, some made it to the paperwork he'd been midway through completing.

In any case, he wouldn't know until Rin and Amaimon returned, with or without Abduxuel in tow. He had paperwork to finish, calls to other branches of the Order, a new line of Mephisto brand products to approve trial sales for…

Mephisto snapped and cleared the mess he'd made, pen restored and document cleaned.

He didn't have a say in the outcome in this situation. It wasn't something with variables he could control for.

What would Rin do when he discovered how Abduxuel had decided to spend his time away? The thought breached his mind unbidden, and Mephisto had to tamp down on another reflexive flex of fingers or have to repair his pen _again_.

Rin was protective, ready to go to war for those he'd claimed as his own. A prickle of sensation went down Mephisto's spine and raised the hairs on his neck. He was included in that number, and Rin had already proven he'd happily take on all of Gehenna and Assiah for his sake.

When that limitless fire of Rin's will met the cold void at Abduxuel's core, who would flinch first?

Not something he could say until the timeline decided itself. Until then, he had to go through the rote duties that couldn't distract him fully until that time came.

Another paper made it to the pile, the missing head on his Miku figurine seemed to stare at him from its spot, despite having rolled under the couch where he'd flicked it in a pique of impulse.

The urge to flick the rest of the body to join its head reared up, but he ignored it to read through another mission report.

A conference call. He might have made one of his lower level exorcists cry, or just about. Didn't matter, if they couldn't handle one phone call with a superior they shouldn't have become one of his pawns. There were more important things to focus on like-

Back to his pile.

Somewhere, a ring sounded, the passage of time existed on his peripherals, always ticking towards-

Mephisto scowled, he'd let his instant noodles grow cold. Why hadn't he paid attention when the timer had gone off?

His pile of paperwork lay completed under his hands, desk cleared of any distractions, because somewhere along the line he'd vanished the whole mess away.

In his mind, the countdown reached zero.

Mephisto had his answer just as a poof of smoke at the opposite end of his office confirmed the timeline.

Three pairs of eyes stared at him from the clearing smoke.

Rin, unable to keep the half-hopeful, half-concerned expression from his face, Amaimon, carefully blank, and…

…Abduxuel, wearing a crooked smile and the tatters of Mephisto's claim.

He wanted to tear across the distance and straight into Abduxuel's chest, past the flesh and blood of his vessel to his _core_.

He didn't. Instead, "That was fast, did you enjoy your time in Gehenna, Rin? Abduxuel's territory is an experience."

That brought a sudden grin cracking onto Rin as he rubbed a hand at his chest.

"Yeah, it's really cool, and I found an old friend."

Yes, he'd noticed a certain addition to Rin's collection. It would be hypocritical of Mephisto to bring up the oddity that was Rin's tendency to allow lesser demons to claim him, not when every demon was lesser, really.

"Then you'll have to make more trips when you've got a bit of time on your hands," he said, a subtle nod towards what Rin had forgotten with his self-appointed mission.

Rin snorted, laughing as he said, "Yeah, when Yukio's not running us ragged-ah!"

Blinking as his words sunk in, Rin turned to Amaimon and grinned. "Are you coming to dinner at Yukio's, Amaimon? We gotta go before he gets mad we're late."

Amaimon nodded, a flick of his gaze between Mephisto and the green eyes pinned to his.

"We'll be back later," Rin said, waving as he hooked his arm to Amaimon's, "Bye, Mephisto."

By the worry that hadn't left Rin, the way he'd scanned Mephisto as Amaimon took them from the room, he'd be spending the dinner thinking about one thing.

"Samael," Abduxuel said once they were alone, "have I mentioned yet what an utter impossibility that being is?"

Mephisto sat back, not breaking Abduxuel's gaze as a soft laugh left his mouth. "No, but he does have that effect, doesn't he."

Quiet lapsed between them, Mephisto kept his heart steady even as a breath brought the ozone-scent from Abduxuel to his nose.

The other scents from Abduxuel's kin crowded for dominance, telling the story Mephisto had already read.

"It seems like the endless night is off to a marvelous start--how is it being back?"

Abduxuel's parties never ended, not completely. Hordes of his kin made his territory a hotbed of activity at all hours, even when he wasn't there to mingle amongst the cycle of guests.

On the days even he tired of the commotion, Abduxuel would come to Mephisto.

"I haven't slept for a week!" Abduxuel laughed, "My kin have caught me up on their two hundred years, and if I thought demons had the capacity for an imagination I would have suspected they'd dreamed everything up."

His kin.

"But Samael," his ears flicked at the sound of his name and the way Abduxuel looked like he'd begun gnawing at the inside of his cheeks. "There's some things they couldn't tell me. About Lucifer."

In Mephisto's chest, a knot tightened, barbed wire around the sinking pit there.

"Yes, Lucifer's conflict with me you've no doubt learned plenty about," Mephisto started, detached as he watched to see how Abduxuel would take what he revealed. It was time, anyway. What use was concealing Lucifer's role in things?

"Your Rin is many things, but tight-fisted with his words, he is not," and as flighty as Abduxuel came off, Mephisto knew how often his attention to detail came into play. "He said something in passing, tossed into the whirlwind he set on me my first day back."

Another talent of Rin's. Mephisto almost pitied Abduxuel, if he hadn't experienced the same.

"About telling Lucifer too, that it wasn't his business what we were to each other." He must have guessed then, that there was something more to Rin's words. And none of his kin would have known anything about Lucifer's involvement in a way that answered the questions he had.

So he _needed_ Samael, at least to answer that one portion, even if he hadn't asked beforehand.

Pettiness curled in his gut, bringing with it the urge to draw it out, to make Abduxuel _work_ for the knowledge he held. An image of Abduxuel's rotted face, his empty vessel, and the memorial resting heavy outside his window, kept the bitter poison at bay.

"Lucifer cursed the both of us," he said instead, watching the slow way Abduxuel blinked at the information. "He revealed himself when Amaimon questioned him."

"Hah!" Abduxuel burst into harsh laughter, fangs bright and extended, eyes wild, "I suppose that's mostly my fault."

Before he could point out the flaw in that logic--the same Rin had pointed out to him and Amaimon--Abduxuel corrected himself with a dry snort. "I made the mistake of believing Lucifer could keep his claws out of our business."

Hadn't they all. Not that he had any foot to stand on, meddling being his forte, but he was a selfish creature. Lucifer had taken something from him and called it a gift.

"I was thoughtless then," Abduxuel said, laughter fading, "I did what I always do, spoke and flitted around without concern for the consequences."

Where was he going with this? Mephisto couldn't read him, struggling with what should have been a simple task, and it left him reeling out of control.

"We've both learned a little something of consequence," Mephisto said after a moment, trying to pick his words in a way that would unravel where Abduxuel was taking things.

"Yes," Abduxuel nodded, looking self-deprecating, "and I've never been any good at introspection--that was always Amaimon's specialty."

What was he trying to say? Mephisto didn't stop the frown from deepening on his face. He didn't understand.

"But it took your Rin to clear up something very obvious that I would have gone the rest of existence without saying to you otherwise."

"Rin-" Mephisto didn't get the chance to complete his question.

Abduxuel raised a hand. In it, he held a key.

Mephisto sucked in a thin breath, hand spasming like he could reach out and take it back as his heart broke the steady pattern he'd forced it into.

His breath shattered on the next exhale, a whine threatening to spill out before he sunk his fangs into his tongue. Hot blood followed, but he kept it from escaping and it ran heavy, choking, down his throat with his swallow.

Abduxuel drew his thumb over the key, Mephisto helpless to stop his eyes from tracking the motion.

"So," lips twitching in a smile that looked more like a grimace, Abduxuel gripped the key until it left welts in his palm, "I realized I'd given you this key without ever explaining myself to you."

What did he _mean?_

"I just expected you to know me and my thoughts like you always do." The softly murmured words rocked Mephisto where he sat.

He thought he _did_ know Abduxuel's thoughts, that he knew them as well as he knew his own.

But Mephisto couldn't see the future, the timeline stared empty back at him, and it took him too long to realize it was because the future depended on _his_ decision. No one else's.

A whimper did escape him then, and he wondered what Abduxuel saw.

"Samael, I only ever wanted to be my own aspect, to be free in the way the others are."

Hissing bit at the inside of Mephisto's mouth as he pressed himself back against his chair like he could avoid Abduxuel's words.

"I know!" he barked out, flecks of blood on his lips. "I know that now."

Hadn't he shown that? Hadn't Mephisto proven that Abduxuel could be free from him? That he wouldn't force him to stay by his side? What else was he supposed to _do?_

"You do, love," Abduxuel said so easily, the word lashing at Mephisto's mind the same way it had the first time he'd uttered it.

"Then why?" He couldn't make himself finish, caught by the gleam of the key in Abduxuel's hand.

Abduxuel brought the key to his nose, inhaling as his eyes shuttered while he took in Mephisto's scent.

"I gave you this key and many like it numerous times, Samael," he said lowly. "Even back at the start, the first time I left, before I'd ever created one."

"What does that mean?" Mephisto wanted to snarl, but it came out weaker than intended.

"What I've been trying to say from the start, and what I thought was obvious, when I should have spelt it out for you."

For the first time in every iteration of his existence, Mephisto wanted to flee.

“This key,” Abduxuel waved it across his face, “was meant as an invitation.”

“What?”

An invitation?

"You remember when I left that first time," he said in statement, fact, because neither would ever forget that moment. "When I found my name and individuated myself from us."

Mephisto nodded anyway.

"You should have followed--in my mind, you were supposed to-but you _didn't_ ," the structure fell apart, Abduxuel's mouth twisting with his frustration as he tried to explain. "I wanted you to come _with_ me then."

 _With him_. Yes, he'd known that. Abduxuel had said those words, that he- _they_ should go to Gehenna. But he hadn't wanted to, hadn't seen a need to go to that boring, stagnant place.

"I wanted you to come with me then," Abduxuel repeated, something pleading in his eyes, "and I wanted you to come every time since."

He'd never asked! Not after that first time. Or he had, but Mephisto hadn't wanted to think about it because it hadn't sounded fun, hadn't fit in his game, had only-

“And how many times did you, Samael?”

Not many, not in the scheme of things, not- “How many times was it that _I_ fled back to _you_ when I couldn’t take it anymore?”

The past threw itself in his face, Mephisto unable to ignore the glaringly obvious once it showed. Interposed over Abduxuel's expression were the millions he'd worn those days he'd broken and appeared before Mephisto.

Desperate, furious, covered in the scents of others as if he could ever fully cover Mephisto's.

And they'd fought until they'd clawed the foreign scents from each other's bodies.

"Do you understand, Samael?" Abduxuel asked, looking as broken as he had in Mephisto's visions of the past.

Without his say, Mephisto rose from his chair, pen clattering to the desk and sending twin flinches through them.

He vanished between one step and the next, reappearing a foot away from Abduxuel.

The air stilled in the small distance, like space-time had frozen without their conscious decision.

Mephisto opened his mouth, a croak leaving as he stared up into the bared expression on the face of his other half.

His hand rose, it shook.

A weakness he'd never experienced before made it seem like the shivers extended to his core.

Abduxuel let him rest his fingers in a soft curl around where he held his key.

"I'm-" he broke off, licking his lips and forcing the words free- "I'm _sorry_ , love."

Twice now, he'd said an apology and actually meant it. He'd been lucky Amaimon had accepted but…

Clarity hit after so long, and so many years of clawing at a wall he'd never been able to understand the source of or overcome.

"Please," he sounded wretched to his own ears, "let me have it back."

Let him try again now that he knew.

Time swelled around the space holding them, a bubble they existed in alone.

The impasse broke like spider thread kept it together, falling soft as Abduxuel drew his hand back towards his face. Lips touched to Mephisto's taut knuckles as green eyes closed, leaving him adrift.

A word pressed itself to his skin a moment later, sound following the impression.

"Yes," Abduxuel said, eyes opening to meet his over the key, "yes, Samael."

He tugged Mephisto forward, hands caught between their bodies as his nose settled to Mephisto's neck.

"Do you know what my favorite part of leaving off on my own was?" Abduxuel said in the quiet he'd created, "It was the moment I made it back home to you, Samael."

Home. Such a human concept, but it encompassed so much more coming from his other half.

Mephisto burrowed to Abduxuel, gaze inward, sightless as he felt the other side of their claim repaired. It jolted him, his own aspect tying to Abduxuel's like it was the first time all over again.

In his hand, the key burned with cold fire, and he felt the piece of Abduxuel that had gone into its creation.

Purring started up in Abduxuel's chest, a rumbling comfort that left Mephisto languid after the shock he'd just undergone.

"You know, Samael," Abduxuel said with a sly undertone that had Mephisto's ears twitching at attention, "I was thinking it was time you showed me around your territory, introduced me to your world fully. Finally taught me that human language your Rin speaks."

Heart fluttering at the implications, Mephisto started to smile. "If you're in the mood, I have an idea you may enjoy for some time."

Abduxuel mirrored his smile.

They began to scheme.

* * *

Rin stared, incredibly distracted, up at the front of the classroom.

Behind him, a huff of breath said Amaimon was amused, probably at the way his heart had skittered in his chest and couldn’t seem to control itself yet.

He couldn't talk, though, because Rin had heard him jerk his head up at the sight, going from sleeping to waking in the time it took Rin’s heart to start racing.

A grinning mouth beamed back at them, mirrored by another beside it and neither doing anything to calm Rin’s confusion.

“Guten morgen, students,” Mephisto sang, “I’m here to introduce your new professor, who will be replacing Professor Adachi in instructing your history lessons for the remainder of the year.”

No way. Rin’s gaze jerked to the smile that had stretched at Mephisto’s words, eyes wide as the situation began to make sense, even if it really, really didn’t

“Please give a warm welcome to Professor Adriel Faust, my esteemed older brother and expert in his field.”

Abduxuel bowed in a flourish. “Thank you, Johann, for your flattering introduction.”

His eyes bore straight into Rin’s when he rose and spoke with an undercurrent of a purr that sent sparks along his nerves, “I look forward to teaching you all this year. Please be kind to me.”

Be _kind_ to him? Rin contained the first million questions he wanted to burst out with in the middle of class.

Wait. The world made less sense than before, because Rin was sure that had been Japanese out of Abduxuel's mouth, and _not_ the archaic stuff he'd used at the start.

"And how wonderful that I'll have the pleasure of instructing my lovely nephew," Abduxuel continued as if Rin was in any way ready for more of whatever was going on. "I won't be showing favoritism, however, so I expect you to pay attention, Mr. Faust."

Amaimon scoffed under his breath, and Rin heard what sounded like him slumping onto his desk. It just made Abduxuel smile wider.

"Well then, I'll leave you students in good hands," Mephisto said as Rin jerked his gaze, the urge to drag him back until he explained making him twitch forward.

He left the room with a final wave before Rin felt his presence vanish, probably to his office. The bastard.

That left Rin faced with Abduxuel at the front of the room. A whimper died in his chest at the toothy grin and-

-and what was he _wearing?_ Rin wanted to whine at Amaimon, but doubted he would have an answer Rin didn't already know in this specific case.

"Now then, I've gone over the lesson notes from Professor Adachi and it appears…" Abduxuel began like he'd been teaching his entire life, walking across the floor with light steps.

The movement only deepened Rin's suffering, because every step brought the problem more into focus.

Long legs in dark, fitted slacks, a tapered waist accentuated by a deep blue vest, the sleeves of his partly unbuttoned, collared shirt rolled to his elbows--had Abduxuel specifically looked at a clothing collection geared towards ruining his students' lives?

Really, the only thing missing was Abduxuel's tail out and swaying as he walked. At the thought, Rin's mouth went dry, suddenly glad for demonic etiquette saving him an hour of dry mouth and an obvious blush.

Those long legs made a pass in front of Rin, the scent of ozone itching at his nose until he sneezed, not able to control it while he was so distracted.

"Gesundheit, Mr. Okumura," the sudden voice purring by his ear had Rin squeaking, heat rising to the tips as he stuttered out some kind of response.

Why him? Rin dropped his head to the desk, ears pricked for the sound of Abduxuel moving away so he could safely look once his blush faded.

Raising his head led to another squeak Rin kept behind his clenched teeth. Green eyes pierced into his, lips curled around the tip of a claw, indenting the skin before swiping off. Abduxuel shifted, drawing Rin to watch the way he wrote something on the board he couldn't focus enough to read.

This class was going to kill him and it had only been--Rin tore his gaze to the clock--fifteen minutes!

Was he the only one suffering like this? He couldn't be, right? Rin ran a shaky gaze across the room.

Ok, it wasn't just him, because that was definitely a glaze on most of the students' eyes--and not the usual one brought on by absolute boredom. Rin could tell, though he wished he couldn't half the time.

Was this his life now? Abduxuel leaned down to search for something in the desk like he couldn't just _snap it into his hands_ , dammit!

Pulses skyrocketed at the move, though several stayed even, Amaimon's amongst them.

Traitor. He fought a grumble, wishing he could glare at Amaimon.

At least it was only the one class of the day. Rin could survive that. More importantly, it was just his regular history class at the academy, not his cram class.

If he'd had to deal with Abduxuel in front of his friends he might actually die.

He just had to survive until the end.

"Here, Mr. Okumura," Abduxuel said, a rumbled undercurrent to his voice only Rin and Amaimon would be able to pick up as he set a worksheet in front of his crossed arms. "Please feel free to come to me after class if you ever have _any_ questions you need to go over in more detail."

Abduxuel passed, taking his addictive ozone-scent and going to torment Amaimon next.

He'd scraped a claw, hidden by the paper, to Rin's hand before he'd gone. His skin burned like he'd been branded.

Just survive until the end.

* * *

The class ended and Rin nearly tripped out of his seat. His heart thudded, wishing he could drag Amaimon out faster.

Somehow they made it to the hallway. Rin spun Amaimon around to shove him to the wall and his question came out ragged.

" _How?_ "

Gold eyes blinked at him, Amaimon's brow raising and teeth clicking over the sucker in his mouth.

"And _why?_ " Rin pressed when Amaimon didn't answer quick enough.

Another blink, Rin's heart dropped as Amaimon's lips curled into a widening, toothy grin.

"Didn't you hear? He's replacing that boring human."

Rin groaned, dropping his head to Amaimon's shoulder. Clearly, he wasn't going to be getting any help from that corner.

"Let's just go to the next class."

Why did it feel like a gaze stabbed into him the whole walk away from Abduxuel's new stomping grounds?

Suppressing a shiver was difficult, but Rin did it with sheer will power.

Then he tried to shove it from his mind, finding concentration hard to come by all the way until the final class of the day.

"I need to burn off some energy real quick, Amaimon," Rin said, tugging at his hair until it stuck on end. A static seemed to tingle along his nerves as he turned to see if Amaimon had any ideas.

If he had to go to another round of classes without getting rid of some of the pent up energy in his system he'd never survive.

"Ok." A snap took them from the halls.

Amaimon gave Rin exactly a second to realize they were floating above a vast forest somewhere on Assiah before a clawed finger came to rest at his forehead.

"Tag!" Pain split Rin's senses as Amaimon flicked his finger and sent him slamming into the ground below.

Blood stung at Rin's eyes, his body held broken bones.

Adrenaline coursed through Rin, a livewire that jolted him to his feet on still healing limbs back into the air with a burst of laughter and bared fangs.

He could play this game.

Crashes echoed in the forest, Rin tearing through the obstacles in his path to Amaimon.

Tree limbs and boulders flung towards Rin with Amaimon's direction. They met his flames as Rin destroyed what he couldn't dodge, dropping down over the most recent.

His claws met the ground on either side of Amaimon's head and Rin grinned in a baring of fangs.

"Tag!" he crowed, ducking with a harsh kiss to Amaimon that had them exchanging panted breaths and blood they'd won free.

Their game wasn't over, though, so Rin dragged himself from Amaimon to dart back into the forest.

Earth rumbled behind him with Amaimon’s pursuit, miniature seismic shifts that would have thrown Rin from his feet if he’d been human but only made the game more exciting.

A tree sprouted right in Rin’s path faster than he could dodge and he slammed into it, cursing at the bright pain lancing from his fractured cheek. Amaimon followed, shoving him to the rough surface and growling at his neck.

“Tag,” he said, chest vibrating to Rin’s and body a heated weight along his spine.

Instincts directed Rin to tilt his head before he could stop himself and Amaimon was on him, fangs latching to his pulse to mouth there. His claws came to Rin’s arms, pinning him further in place.

Rin melted against him, head falling back to rest on Amaimon’s shoulder as he submitted, changing their game to another just as fun.

Satisfied that Rin wasn’t going anywhere, Amaimon loosed intermittent purrs between breaths as he shifted to twist his hips to Rin’s in a rough grind.

The fight left them both with heightened excitement, dredged up from the day cooped inside a building.

Panting breaths filled Rin's senses as he rolled his hips back against Amaimon. A hand reached down to palm him, the touch hurried as Rin gasped a harsh cry.

His movements stuttered under Amaimon's attentions while pleasure whited out any awareness of his surroundings.

Everything narrowed down to the hot palm and Amaimon's teeth biting and gnawing his throat to ruin.

Amaimon's other hand left Rin's wrist to drag his head back until his neck ached at the strained position. He didn't care, moan loosing from his lips and tail lashing under his confining clothes.

Their pace increased as they rutted against each other, movements erratic, formless as a rising heat crested in Rin.

Fangs sunk deep into his exposed throat, tearing a cry from Rin as he came, Amaimon continuing through it before snarling his own release and stilling.

Hips twitched in heated motions, chasing the last of the pleasure as they came down from their high.

"Mmn," Rin tried to say, giving up and focusing on breathing instead.

Small shocks went through his nerves from where Amaimon tongued the indents he wouldn't let heal while Rin went lax as he recovered, distracting energy _finally_ gone.

"Thanks, Amaimon," he said, cheerful as he brushed their cheeks together, damp after the exertions. "That was fun, I needed it."

He could definitely make it through classes now.

And if he had to do this every day just to survive whatever it was Abduxuel was trying in class, then he wouldn't be complaining.

"Come on, we gotta go back," Rin sighed, "I'm pretty sure we're already late."

An expected grumble, Amaimon biting again as if punishing him for being bound by human responsibilities, and his mouth left Rin.

Shooting Amaimon a look didn't change the unrepentant one he got in return as clawed fingers snapped, cleaning them and taking them back to the academy.

Rin's eyes opened just as the scents hit him and his heart stopped.

"No," he whimpered, staring transfixed to the door like it was the maw of some threatening creature. "No, Amaimon. _No_."

"Can we skip?" came Amaimon's utterly useless reply.

Another snap sounded from inside the room and the door opened on a shark-like grin directed Rin's way.

"It seems we have late arrivals, and on my first day, too," Abduxuel purred with delight flashing in his eyes. "Care to explain yourselves, darlings?"

No! Definitely not, Rin wanted to screech. Especially because he knew Abduxuel could smell exactly what they'd been up to.

Further in the room, he heard a questioning mutter of "darlings" from Bon. Rin's ears drooped as he fought the renewed blush and walked in.

"Playing," Amaimon answered, voice a drawl that Rin knew meant he was smirking.

"Yeah, that," Rin said as he dropped into his seat, trying to ignore the varying expressions on his friends' faces. "And you're teaching this class _too?_ "

It should have been obvious to Rin the second Mephisto had said Abduxuel would be replacing Professor Adachi, seeing as he taught both the regular and cram history classes. But Rin hadn’t thought about that, too caught up with not staring at Abduxuel whenever he sauntered past his desk. It helped even less that Abduxuel and Mephisto both carried the exact scents on them that had Abduxuel giving a knowing look to Rin as soon as they’d walked into class.

Had they done it on purpose to torment him? Rin knew they could just wipe the evidence away in a snap of their fingers.

If they had, then Rin would be hearing about it that night, so there wasn’t anything he could do now, especially around his friends.

Amaimon slumped next to him at the bench while Rin tried to avoid staring when Abduxuel tilted his head in-- _fake_ , had to be faked--contemplation, exposing the long line of his neck.

"Well of course, Samael and I discussed it and I'm really the best suited to teach a class on demonic history, having been there for most of it."

How had they gone from not seeing each other for so long to deciding Abduxuel would teach classes at the academy?

On the one hand, Rin was thrilled. This was excellent news as far as getting rid of that misery he had seen Mephisto hiding.

When they’d come back to his office after collecting Abduxuel, Rin hadn’t been sure things would work out. He'd seen the renewed claim on Mephisto later that night, but no sign of Abduxuel.

And on the other hand…

“Since you imps haven't missed much, make yourselves comfortable and pay attention, hm?" Abduxuel said with a grin as he flicked his fingers at them.

Without a better plan, Rin sunk further down, shoulders hunching like he could hide that way.

“Er,” Bon coughed, getting the room’s attention. When he saw he had it, he shifted, directing his words to Abduxuel, “I don’t want to sound rude, but are you really qualified to teach us?”

That brought Rin up from his slump, blinking sharply. Bon was blunt, but this was a little more rude than he usually was, especially to a teacher or authority figure. Konekomaru looked nervous next to him, front teeth worrying at his lip as his eyes darted to Abduxuel. Like he was worried about Bon's safety.

"Mr. Suguro," Abduxuel said with a sly undercurrent that had Rin wincing for Bon's sake. That was definitely "serpent about to strike" levels and Rin knew Bon wasn't ready for it. "Are you accusing your esteemed director of nepotism?"

Nepotism? Rin tried to figure out what that word even meant as Bon sputtered.

"I actually have to agree with him," Izumo chimed in, startling Rin. "We have finals that we've been cramming for, never mind that there's a war moving up the dates for our exorcist qualification exams."

"Things have really gotten serious," came Konekomaru's soft sigh.

Ok, maybe they had a point. Not that Rin was even sure what the future held for him in that matter. He wanted to be paladin still, but did the Order's threats to execute him if he didn't pass the exorcist exams at the end of the year stand anymore?

Rin tried to imagine the Order getting past Amaimon, let alone Mephisto and--his gaze flicked to an amused Abduxuel where he stood with folded arms, waiting--he doubted Abduxuel would play along with their rules.

What would Rin do if they came for him?

The answer formed in his mind, but he swept it under, unsettled about how easy it sounded.

"I see, those are valid concerns, of course." It almost sounded rote, like Abduxuel had studied that line, or was mocking them, and Rin wondered if maybe Mephisto had written the script. "You're out of luck, sorry!"

"Sorry?" Bon nearly broke his composure, beginning to fume.

Hands spread wide, Abduxuel grinning in the face of the ire he'd earned. "Yes, sorry, you're going to be putting up with me until the end of the semester."

A clawed finger wagged when Bon tried to find his voice as Abduxuel leaned back on the desk, legs crossed and perfectly comfortable there.

"I'll make a deal with you students," he said, quieting the room. "If a week has passed and I haven't shown you I'm a far superior instructor than that human, we can all go tell Samael it's just not working and you'll be free of me."

Rin couldn't imagine how that conversation would go, watching emotions flicker rapid-fire across his friends' faces.

"Um," Shiemi spoke up, flustered when Abduxuel raised a brow at her, "that seems fair, sir."

"Y-yeah, I guess," Bon followed behind, wind blown from his sails at the seemingly genuine offer as Konekomaru nodded his own assent.

Izumo shrugged. "Fine by me."

"Perfect!" Abduxuel said, hopping off the desk and bringing a notebook to his hand to read. The move also had a pair of glasses poofing into existence on his face.

They settled down his nose, accentuating his face in a way that had Rin hiding a new whimper. What was he doing? He didn't even need glasses!

Again, Abduxuel began his pacing, smooth voice curling around Rin's ears until Rin thought he might just cover them, anything to get his mind off the damn demon.

Was it just Rin or was the room too hot? Shifting didn't help, and it took him a minute to realize maybe it was just him, not the room, because he couldn't even feel temperature anymore.

As if to spite him, Amaimon yawned and burrowed closer, a weighted blanket that had Rin itching to start his own pacing.

In the dingy, small room, so much more confining than the fancy academy rooms the regular classes took place in, everything seemed magnified.

Abduxuel passed by, gesturing animatedly along with his lesson, calling on each of them to answer questions. Each time it came to Rin's turn under his stare, Abduxuel moved into his space. A hint of fangs sent shivers through Rin that he tamped down on as his mind flashed to the first time they’d interacted.

Was it another challenge? Another test from Abduxuel Rin just didn’t know enough about demons or him to guess the purpose of? Had Mephisto put him up to it?

The questions were the last, desperate attempts from his mind to escape the way Abduxuel’s presence set every hair on end.

“This is intolerable,” Abduxuel’s sudden huff of breath took Rin from his circling thoughts to see him waving the papers in his hand across his face.

His skin had taken on a light sheen to it, a trickle of sweat went down the part of his shirt. Rin’s nose flared as he tracked the stupid drop until it disappeared.

“What is, sir?” Shiemi asked, polite and blinking up at Abduxuel. Next to her, Izumo seemed to find a spot on the blackboard fascinating, refusing to look anywhere else.

It was intolerable, Rin wanted to grumble, or at least lose the ability to breathe along with his sense of temperature.

"This room is stifling, does Samael really keep you in here?" He made a show of glaring at the limited bounds of the room, which, ok, Rin had the same impression of it when he'd first opened the door.

They'd all gotten used to the cramped area, even if the exposed pipes in the ceiling gave worrying rattles every now and then and they could never predict what temperature the room would be on any given day.

Apparently, today was a hot day. Rin watched as Abduxuel shrugged and undid another button on his shirt before tugging at the curls of his hair like they bothered him suddenly.

"I-uh," Bon started, unable to quite look up from his desk, "I have a hair clip--if you need it, that is, uh, sir."

His cheeks had a slight pink tinge and Rin gaped.

"Thank you, Mr. Suguro," Abduxuel said with a bright smile on his face that sent even more confused knots to tighten Rin's stomach.

Rin tried to shove them down, disbelief joining the tangled mess as Bon stuttered a "no problem, sir" to Abduxuel and snatched his fingers back from handing over one of the extra hair clips he always had.

Blue hair clipped back and a smile fixed on his face, Abduxuel continued where he'd left off. His scent seemed magnified. Rin put this head down and hid a groan into his arms.

This was the _worst_.

* * *

The rest of the week continued like Rin's own personal hell.

Mephisto-- _still_ covered by Abduxuel's scent--had just beamed at him when he'd made it back home after classes. Rin tried to resist the urge to strangle him and took out his newest burst of frustrated energy on dinner that night.

But the next day arrived anyway. Abduxuel had a new vest and dress pants combination. He wore Bon's clip in his hair.

Amaimon slept, completely useless to Rin in his agony.

What was worse was that even their playing in between regular and cram classes didn't have the same effect when Rin knew what was coming.

It only served to ramp him up even _more_.

Forget making it to his finals or the exorcist exams, Rin wouldn’t last the month before seeing if Amaimon would just bury him in the grounds of the academy.

All because…

Students shuffled down the halls after their last class, Rin trailing through in the hopes of finding a clear space to sit for lunch with Amaimon. Normally they’d be going to Mephisto’s office but he had a meeting.

One of the doors opened and a familiar voice laughing jerked Rin around even as his blood froze in his body.

“Samael should have told me there was a human as fascinating as you roaming his territory,” Abduxuel purred in a voice that had Rin’s ears pinning back to his skull to escape. “I would have been here _far_ sooner.”

Lightning grinned up into Abduxuel’s smiling face, eyes hidden by his hair but full attention on him, evident by the way they mirrored each other, inches apart.

“What the-” - _fuck?_ Rin completed in his head, paused in the hall as he tried to understand what he was seeing. Next to him, Amaimon gave a low huff, though something about it sounded less amused than he had before.

“Haha thanks!” Lightning chirped. “You’re the coolest thing to happen to this place since I started here. Definitely the most interesting member of the faculty!”

“A charmer, too!” Abduxuel said back just as cheerfully.

Were they…getting along? Rin wanted to go back to when things made sense in his life. At this point he no longer knew when that mystical time was.

“What do you say about checking out some of the fun places in this town tonight, get some drinks, huh?” Lightning said as Rin choked.

They weren't-they were just-that definitely _wasn't_ -

"Hm,"Abduxuel hummed, leaned closer, "or we could take those drinks in my new office here."

A whimper escaped Rin.

His gaze tracked helplessly as Abduxuel leaned down to murmur something only a demon would be able to hear at their distance straight into Lightning's ear.

"Or, we might skip those drinks and just go into that convenient storage closet at the end of this hall."

 _No_.

The smile on Lightning's face stretched to painful-looking proportions.

Rin didn't know what plane of reality he was on anymore.

"You're speaking my language," Lightning murmured right back, walking away with a light brush of his shoulders to Abduxuel, more like a cat pressing up along him as he strolled down the hall.

Teeth glinted out from the knife of Abduxuel's smile, extended past the usual fangs to an array that set Rin's nerves on edge.

Then he glanced up and winked-- _winked_ \--at them before prowling after Lightning.

That _bastard_. Rin couldn't get his mouth to work, gaping at Abduxuel with his hands limp at his sides as he tried to figure out if he'd hallucinated the whole thing.

"Him?" he finally whimpered out, half to himself and half to Amaimon as if he could get an answer that way.

"That human smells," Amaimon said in a dark voice, ducking his chin to rest on Rin's shoulder. "And he's too interested in us. He's annoying."

At least someone agreed with Rin.

Dropping his head back to lean on Amaimon, Rin groaned again.

"Lunch will make us feel better."

Amaimon's sigh said he was probably overestimating the power of their lunch.

The storage closet at the end of the hall seemed to mock Rin as they left.

* * *

"He smells like him in class now," Rin said in what he tried not to turn into a growl. He only half-succeeded, by the wry smile Mephisto let twitch on his face. "Why that guy, of all people?"

Mephisto scratched an idle pattern against Rin as he answered, "You'll have to ask, if you're so curious. Though you may not want to know the answer to that."

Rin shivered at his touch. "Yeah, probably not."

"Aside from that, it appears he's settled in nicely, yes?"

A twitch of Rin's tail, "Yeah," he repeated, "He even got Bon and Izumo cool with him. And the regular class loves him, he wants to take us all on a _field trip_ next week."

They loved him, and followed him like a gaggle of baby ducks. Rin had never _seen_ so many gifts left on a teacher's desk before, except maybe Yukio's.

There was also that Bon and Izumo still couldn't keep the red from their cheeks whenever Abduxuel complimented them on a particular recitation or analysis they'd done. _Koneko_ had nearly fogged up his glasses when Abduxuel had him writing on the board and patted his shoulder for the good work.

At least Shiemi acted normal, though she got along with Abduxuel like they'd been friends for years.

"He has that effect on humans, yes," Mephisto said, a soft chuckle sending strands of Rin's hair to tickle at his skin. "They interpret his gregarious nature as something familiar, comforting. It blinds them, even if they know what he is."

That got a snort from Rin. "Somehow I don't think Lightning is blinded."

"No," Mephisto agreed as he traced the flats of his nails to Rin's jaw, "That particular human enjoys playing with fire."

And "fire" seemed happy to play with Lightning right back. Rin fought to keep a scowl off his face, not really sure where it was coming from.

He shoved it from his mind and allowed Mephisto to distract him the rest of the way.

* * *

That morning, Rin determined he wouldn't wallow in whatever weird mood he'd been in the past week.

He made it through his first class with Abduxuel, keeping a clearer head than he'd managed all week.

A sense of confidence filled Rin as he made his way to Mephisto's office for lunch. The scents inside stopped him, though he pushed them aside to enter. Once inside, Rin paused again, brows scrunching as he searched the room.

"Where's uh, Abduxuel?" He could smell him somewhere but unless he'd literally just left as they'd arrived, he was just out of sight.

Mephisto smiled, finger coming up to his lips before gesturing to Rin to come forward.

Curious, then, Rin tried to keep his steps light until he'd made it to Mephisto's desk, looking down.

 _So cute_. The thought came unbidden, breath hitching in Rin's chest as his eyes widened.

"A certain reprobate was out all last night painting the town red with that unwashed stray he's picked up," Mephisto murmured, gaze on the opened drawer in his desk that had captured Rin's complete attention. "He's decided to spend his free time occupying my furniture."

Rin shook, fighting the sound that wanted to break loose and fingers twitching towards the small form.

"Is that a-"

"A ferret, yes," Mephisto finished for Rin.

Slate-blue and white patterned fur rose on the gently breathing ribcage where Abduxuel, in the shape of a ferret, slept, dead to the world.

In the same way he'd wanted to see how soft the ears were of the rabbit demon who's name he couldn't remember, Rin had to fight to keep from waking up Abduxuel by petting his exposed belly.

It just looked so _inviting_.

Resisting took more will than Rin thought, but he knew if he touched Abduxuel he’d definitely wake him up and then he’d have to explain himself and then he’d die.

Next to Rin, Amaimon draped himself along Mephisto’s chair, eyelids shuttered like he might join Abduxuel in sleep. Instead, he poked a claw at Mephisto. “Lunch.”

“Demanding,” Mephisto muttered, though the reminder set the subject of the sleeping demon king in his desk aside for their new routine.

They left for the next class after, Rin somehow both calmed and newly unsettled. His gaze traveled one last time to the space he knew Abduxuel slept, Mephisto watching over him with a wry fondness.

The strange feeling followed Rin through the rest of the day, a storm building in his veins even the playing with Amaimon couldn't ease. Any moment might bring a jolt of lightning with Rin as the focus and he spent the walk down the hall to Abduxuel's class buzzing with energy.

His nose flared the second he caught the ozone scent. Rin tried to keep from looking like he stalked to his seat.

How successful Rin was could be debated, but he wasn't up for it.

Not that his friends noticed, sitting and talking like it was a normal day.

Amaimon noticed, a slide of gold eyes went down Rin's body, picking up the signs. When he took his usual place beside Rin, a shiver passed between their bodies whose source Rin couldn't be sure of.

Still, he lay his cheek to Rin's shoulder, suppressing himself better than Rin and falling into a mimicry of sleep.

Maybe…Rin determined they'd--he'd--need to see Mephisto about it that night. He couldn't go on like this every day before something broke and he didn't know what was wrong with him that he couldn't relax from his edge.

Abduxuel arrived, poof of smoke heralding his appearance.

"Sorry students, a nap called and I'm not the king of time so it slipped right by me," he said, laughing at his own joke before yawning deeply. His jaw cracked, dress shirt riding up along his torso with a stretch.

Rin saw the outline of a dark tail beneath the white fabric, not hidden by the vest like it always was, and felt Amaimon still as he must have noticed too.

The rumpled fall of his clothes seemed more of a disheveled mess than usual, like he hadn't bothered to fix them after spending a night out.

 _Had_ he bothered to fix them? Words reached him as Abduxuel began his lecture, but he couldn't focus enough to comprehend anything. Mephisto had said he'd been out all night with…Lightning. Did that mean he'd just taken a nap and deliberately not changed from whatever he'd gone out in?

Staring at the wrinkles that wouldn't have been out of place on _his_ clothes if Rin hadn't had Mephisto getting routinely annoyed and fixing it didn't make them magically vanish. Neither did trying to keep his eyes on his notes, because then he had to listen, and Abduxuel’s voice set his _teeth_ on edge.

He smelled like Lightning, like _Mephisto_ \--but he _didn’t_ smell like Rin--at least he didn’t smell like Amaimon, Rin didn’t know what he would do then, he-

He couldn’t keep his head down, it was just making things worse.

Somehow, in the time he’d taken just struggling to breathe without letting his fangs drop or claws extend to the black daggers he knew made his friends wary, Abduxuel’s vest had been completely unbuttoned.

His eyes locked onto the shift of fabric revealed by the parted vest, a shadow beneath it he knew belonged to a tail.

Green eyes caught his stare next, a deep sense of foreboding sinking into Rin’s stomach that he couldn’t explain but could _guarantee_ spelled disaster.

Abduxuel smiled and spoke, “Apologies, students, this isn’t really proper etiquette, but I’ve had a bit of a long night.”

So saying, the dark shape under his shirt moved. Horror struck Rin in a way the version of him at the start of it all would never understand, but now was very real as Abduxuel untucked the back of his shirt from his pants and let his tail uncoil.

Amaimon hissed, body taut and vibrating like a live wire at Rin's side. His slit pupils wouldn't leave Abduxuel's tail.

"Hush, Amaimon, I have to teach a class, don't cause a fuss," Abduxuel said over the rapid heartbeats Rin could hear Amaimon’s hissing cause in his friends.

"Although it's nice you're finally paying attention to my lectures." The sly tilt to Abduxuel’s smile and the way his eyes flashed said he enjoyed how Rin and Amaimon couldn’t seem to stop tracking every sway of his tail.

Black, dully gleaming, and ending on a dangerous-looking stinger, it almost reminded Rin of a scorpion. Except spines at the end, like bristling hairs, spoke of some other creature he couldn’t name.

"That's much better," the tail twitched in a light flick with Abduxuel's words. "It does start to ache, all wound up like that."

Suddenly, Rin understood why Mephisto and Amaimon kept theirs hidden, why they'd insisted he hide his own.

It was a taunt, a _challenge_ , one Abduxuel had done with clear intent. For what, Rin still didn't _know_. His instincts tugged him in two directions that a smaller voice in the back of his mind said was really only one.

Soft growling from Amaimon sent a bubbling stream through Rin's chest, mirroring the sound. His lip had curled to reveal extended fangs that Rin saw from the corners of his eyes, though it was impossible to look away from Abduxuel.

Nothing from Abduxuel, except what Rin thought was a smugness he wore as he ignored them to start teaching again.

Drawing his fingers in a slow curl over the surface of the desk brought a scratch to Rin's ears before he could contain the claws he'd formed. Hopefully his friends hadn't seen or heard anything, another whispered thought came through the drowning instincts.

If Rin just-just explained, very carefully, to Abduxuel, why he should put his tail back out of sight…

“Rin,” a quiet call of his name from Shiemi behind him, “are you okay?”

“Yeah.” The word tasted strange on his tongue, but he had to hold it together. Abduxuel kept speaking, kept walking in that quick pacing around the front of the room, kept flicking his tail in sharp lines every time he _turned his back_ to Rin. “I’m fine.”

Further sounds from Shiemi didn't come.

"Just-uh, just gonna run to the bathroom real quick," Shima said in a mutter, stumbling to send his chair back in a harsh metal whine on the floor. Rin's ears twitched towards it, but he couldn't break his stare.

Shima walked past after a casual gesture from Abduxuel, then did a double-take, gasp sticking in his throat and fear coloring his body-language in a distracting way. But it didn’t keep Rin from meeting Abduxuel’s gaze over Shima.

“Ri-” the rasp from Shima fizzled out.

"Yeah?" Rin felt himself say again.

"Just," Shima licked at his lips in a nervous flutter Rin noted, "your eyes, man…Nevermind--I'll just keep going. Bye!"

Good, he wasn't between Rin and Abduxuel anymore.

“Hm,” the low hum from Abduxuel seemed to trickle down Rin’s spine, raising his hackles. “Continuing, then.”

But the tension didn’t ease. It rose in multitudes, all the little signs and signals pouring off his friends filling the dead air in the room. They sat heavy on his tongue, cloying in the back of his throat.

Abduxuel draped his tail over the side of the desk he’d hopped to sit on, letting it swing like the hand of a clock. The steady tics from the clock in the room began to sync with the motions of Abduxuel’s tail until the two were one and the same and Rin couldn’t look away if the room combusted around them all.

Then maybe he wouldn't have to sit at his desk. Waiting. For what, he wasn't really sure, but when the final circle of the clock hand made its round, Rin felt the tension balloon.

"Rin?" Shiemi tried again until Izumo tugged her along to the door.

"Come on, we gotta go," she hissed, gaze carrying the same concern he could hear in the undercurrent of her words.

Looking at them, reassuring them, would mean taking himself from the staring contest he'd entered with Abduxuel. He didn't think he could do that.

Bon left last, herding Konekomaru ahead of him, and the door shut in finality.

Amaimon was up and out of his seat, breaking the predatory stillness to go for Abduxuel.

A wide grin formed on Abduxuel and he opened his arms, pose confident, as if to accept Amaimon into his embrace.

 _No_.

Rin saw red.

The world twisted as instincts sent Rin slamming into Amaimon's body, a vicious tackle that took them both to the floor.

A snarl shattered between his bared fangs into Amaimon's warping expression as Rin pressed him to the floor with the full weight of his body and power brought to bear. Struggling under him only got Rin's claws sunk deep into the space between his collarbones on either side of his throat to pin him in place.

" _No_ ," Rin snarled again, or for the first time, his heated mind couldn't recall if he'd spoken out loud.

Everything tangled into that one word he couldn't think through.

No, he didn't want Amaimon to go to Abduxuel. No, he didn't want Abduxuel anywhere _near_ Amaimon.

No. _He_ wanted to go and sink _his_ fangs and claws into Abduxuel.

"Whoops, it looks like I've pushed a bit too far," Abduxuel said, his croon cresting over the distance like he deliberately called to Rin and Amaimon.

"Samael did warn me something like this might happen," he leant forward, green eyes set on them, "You're so new, after all."

Too close! Rin snarled another warning as he felt Amaimon shift under him, jerking his head in the next second to clamp his mouth over Amaimon's shoulder and _bite_.

Amaimon arched with a guttural cry, tearing his claws down Rin's back and only making Rin bite until his fangs met on the other side.

"And look, you've even set off Amaimon," Abduxuel said with a tut, like he didn't care at all about Rin's warning. "You've really got to learn to control that body language."

His words buzzed with meaning Rin couldn't parse through the instincts warring with his conscious thoughts.

"You know," a huff and a wry smile, "when I did this I had hoped it would be _me_ under your claws."

Yes, Rin could do that. A hiss curled out against Amaimon's skin where Rin still hadn't let him go. If he did, then Amaimon might go to Abduxuel.

"What if I make you a deal, Rin?” Still no fear, Abduxuel stayed in his place, not backing down but also stopping his advance.

It had the growls rumbling through Rin subsiding until the only sounds in the room were their heartbeats and breaths.

Then Abduxuel sat back, reducing the pressure his presence exerted. His tail slithered out of sight as Rin froze, knocked off balance.

Licking at the trapped piece of Amaimon he hadn’t released yet took another portion of time necessary for Rin to drag himself from the edge. A flex of his claws gained a grunt of pain from Amaimon that made him realize he’d been gripping bone. He should-he should take his claws out.

Rin pulled his fingers from the holes he'd gouged in between Amaimon’s collarbones, blood welling up as they began to heal without the obstruction Rin caused.

"There we go, got your mind back?" Abduxuel said, cheerful again in a way that Rin could pick up now that he could think clearer.

"What deal?" Rin said, though it came out as if through gravel because he hadn't been able to bring his fangs from the wedges they’d become.

“I won’t lay a finger on dear Amaimon,” _good_ , Rin’s eyes narrowed with his pleasure, lips sliding down over his fangs at the promise, “and I will put myself at your mercy for teasing you so cruelly today.”

Not just today, Rin wanted to grumble, irritation trickling in.

But, “He’s mine.”

Chuckling and Abduxuel raising his hands in a pacifying motion only had Rin ducking to nose at Amaimon’s throat. The glow of his claim soothed him as he nuzzled to the pulse, inhaling to take in the scent there.

“Yes, we can all agree on that.”

Easing off after a last sweep of his tongue to his neck gave Amaimon the freedom to move. He did, sitting up with a huff of breath and face back to the usual impassive one.

“It’s about time,” Amaimon said, claws trailing over Rin’s uniform as if searching for the perfect spot to rip it to shreds.

Nothing made sense to Rin, but he didn't really need it to, not when he had Amaimon running a possessive touch to his body, over his tail.

 _His_ body, not Abduxuel's. Again, the small voice reared its head, louder now that Rin didn't have a head full of heat blanketing his lucid thoughts. He _knew_ Amaimon wanted Abduxuel, had wanted him for countless years. It wasn't right for Rin to keep him from Abduxuel, much as his instincts thrashed inside him for letting them anywhere near each other.

"I'm sorry, I," Rin shuddered, licking his lips and disengaging from Amaimon to bow his head, shame welling up even as he battered at the rest of the fuming instincts telling him to drag Amaimon further away. "It's not up to me, you can-"

He couldn't complete the sentence, words sticking in his throat around another growl.

"Let's save that for another day, Rin," Abduxuel picked up where he'd been unable to continue. It sent ragged relief into Rin's veins, a slow breath exhaling as he realized he wouldn't have to fight, at least not now.

Now, he could scratch the insistent itch he'd been avoiding from the moment Abduxuel had appeared.

When Rin next looked, Amaimon had perched himself on their desk, head cocked like a bird, waiting. His irises glowed golden as Rin rose.

Shaking more of the heat and traces of guilt had Rin quirking a grin at Amaimon, admitting, “Sorry, Amaimon, I’ve been kinda taking things out on you and Mephisto.”

“You have,” Amaimon said, shrugging like it didn’t bother him at all. Which, it probably hadn’t, given that Rin’s method of blowing off steam was the highlight of both their days.

That didn’t mean he couldn’t apologize.

Plan determined, Rin moved into Amaimon’s space, hands parting his torn shirt to clean the red he’d soaked his front with earlier.

Nipping brought more blood beading to the surface that Rin sucked until bruises formed and healed. He could hear Amaimon’s pulse pick up in his veins, a hitch of his breath when Rin parted his shirt the rest of the way. Especially once Rin’s hands moved to his pants, undoing them to find Amaimon half-hard already.

Grinning wider, he set a soft kiss to the last bruise he’d made and began.

Rin nosed at Amaimon's stomach, heated breath ghosting over the quivering muscles there as he made his way further down.

When he took him in his mouth, he heard two appreciative rumbles at the display.

A clawed hand slid it's way through his hair before gripping tight to the strands and Rin couldn't stop the gasp at the sensation.

He squinted up at Amaimon, tonguing at his length in a heated twist and hiding a pleased grin at the utter focus in the gold eyes that met him.

"I've just had a wonderful idea," Abduxuel's voice, tinged with a barely hidden edge of wickedness, interrupted from where he sat on his desk still.

Amaimon grunted, gaze leaving Rin's, though he kept a firm grasp in his hair, not allowing him to stop.

"Samael is stuck, one of those delightful meetings he entertains with the humans."

Rin's interest was immediately piqued. He knew where Abduxuel was going with this and hummed around Amaimon, almost wiggling in his kneeled position.

"So what, he misses out," Amaimon said, breathless as Rin's hum sent pleasant vibrations through him.

"Yes, he does, doesn't he," Abduxuel said, then shifted, the sounds of cloth parting before a click of a flip phone opening up reached Rin and he knew he'd guessed right.

He felt Amaimon still under him and brought his hands up to knead at his hips, claws pricking the skin there as he drew back to speak.

"He's gonna kill us, do it," Rin said, grinning at Abduxuel to see him running a finger over his phone and watching Rin with dark eyes.

"He may regret having shown me how to use one of these little devices, though this is going to make me lazy. I used to have to paint him a picture using words of the exploits we didn't share."

Abduxuel didn't seem that broken up about it, his smile widening and exposing the points of his fangs.

And the thought of him teasing Mephisto like that sent heat simmering under Rin's skin, imagining the way Abduxuel would have approached, all slinky movements and velvet words until he got the reaction he wanted.

A hiss from Amaimon drew him out of his thoughts and he realized he'd dug his claws into his hips where he'd clamped them.

Rin withdrew the claws, but didn't offer an apology. Amaimon didn't want one, by the blown pupils in his irises.

So he moved, slowly, so that Amaimon could see his path and intent, to trace his tongue to the healing gouges.

By the time he laved his tongue in a wide, dragging sweep over the dip of a sharp hip bone, an impatient growl had built in Amaimon's chest.

And a click from a camera flash came, Rin glanced to the side and saw Abduxuel admiring the photo he'd taken.

"Wait, before you send that, take one more, I've got something that'll really piss him off," Rin said, taking his mouth from Amaimon with a last nip at his skin and gaining both their attentions.

"Please, Rin, your creativity is inspiring," Abduxuel said as he cocked his head to peer at him with a delighted smile.

Amaimon snorted and traced a finger over Rin's jaw, his own smile twitching at his lips, "He's going to know it was your suggestion again."

"Oh? You know what he's going to do? It must be very effective against Samael," Abduxuel's interest grew and a shock of pleasure went through Rin, realizing he'd never considered what his reaction would be.

So he sat back on his haunches, leaving Amaimon with a last pull of his hands along his thighs, to start taking his uniform off.

He saw the moment Abduxuel realized what he was planning, his absinthe-green eyes going almost incandescent, the slit pupils disappearing in the color.

Rin let his tail unwind from his torso in slow, looping coils until it rose behind him and swayed.

"Very creative," Abduxuel murmured, tracking each deliberate movement.

A wicked smile of his own split his lips and he bent back to Amaimon’s lap, resting his cheek there and catching his gaze.

“Take my tail, Amaimon,” he breathed against the now shivering body under him, “but if you pull it I’m gonna bite you.”

The promise only made Amaimon's fangs lengthen in his mouth as if he was imagining Rin sinking his in deep.

But he did as Rin asked, fingers fisting in the longer fur at the end of Rin's tail to draw it up next to his lap.

Tugs at the strands sent pleasant tingles up his spine and a light shiver through him while he purred at having his request fulfilled.

That was only part of his plan. Rin nuzzled further into Amaimon's lap, letting his half-lidded gaze meet Abduxuel's so he could see his reaction to his next move.

Slit pupils tracked the slow twist of his hand up Amaimon's length and the way it caused him to shudder and tighten his hold on Rin.

"Abduxuel," Rin said, a breathy moan on his lips, "I want you…"

He trailed off, eyes fluttering closed and mouth dropping open as Amaimon turned the same torture on him and rubbed his tail through the fur.

"Oh, _Rin_ ," he heard Abduxuel say with his own deep purr, "when you say my name like that, you can have me any way you choose."

"Mmn inside." Rin cracked his eyes open again, needing to see what his next words would do to the demon king of space.

"I want you inside me."

Amaimon's hips stuttered beneath Rin's cheek, new pre-cum dripping from his length.

Apparently he'd liked that idea. Rin didn't bother containing his grin, dropping his jaw to let his tongue slip free to trail upwards until he collected the pre-cum there.

This way, he'd get exactly what he wanted. Abduxuel and Amaimon without his instincts screaming at him to keep the two separate

"You only ever needed to say the word, Rin," Abduxuel said, a deeper rumble at the back of his throat as he dropped off the desk.

Having him walk into Rin's blindspot made his tail twitch in Amaimon's hold as a shiver of anticipation raised the hairs on his skin.

A wave of satisfaction followed the clawed finger Abduxuel drew down his spine, bringing a purr from Rin at finally feeling him so close.

How was he compared to Amaimon? Mephisto? There were so many ways he imagined Abduxuel might act, stirred up by the week he'd teased him throughout.

Instead of more teasing Rin wasn't sure he could handle right then, Abduxuel went straight to the base of his tail and kneaded there.

Moaning at the firm touch stopped the licks Rin had been idly leaving along Amaimon as his vision went hazy.

"Simply beautiful." Rin's ears burned at the sighed compliment from Abduxuel. His legs spread, hips arching in the hopes that it would encourage him to continue.

"Rin," Amaimon prompted, claws tugging Rin's hair to send sharp stings through his scalp.

Oh yeah, he was apologizing.

Setting his hands to Amaimon's thighs gave Rin leverage as he took him down again. He breathed shallow gasps through his nose until he made it to the base, his newest favorite trick he'd learned.

As he adjusted to the heavy obstruction in his mouth, Abduxuel hummed and moved from Rin's tail.

"I'll leave this here, he'll enjoy this angle the most," he said to himself, a snap doing something Rin couldn't see out of sight. "And I'll be using this, Samael did recommend it."

Before Rin could wonder, a click of a bottle popping open answered his question. A moment later and Abduxuel slid a finger slicked with the unscented oil Mephisto liked to use to Rin's entrance.

Rin's eyes clenched closed and he drew long breaths through his nose as Abduxuel went straight to preparing him, the burning stretch making him shudder.

Mephisto had _recommended_ it, he'd said. They'd _talked_ about it, about Abduxuel and Rin.

His eyes shot open as Abduxuel removed his fingers and pressed the head of his length in without preamble, just a low sound of pleasure.

The whole week he'd spent in conflict over his instincts, where Rin had nearly torn his hair out trying to understand what Abduxuel's game was, and he could have had _this_.

Clicking from another picture being taken reached Rin. His groan came muffled to Amaimon as he thought about Mephisto getting that one and what he might do because of it.

Amaimon's patience ran out and he started pulling insistently on Rin's hair, thrusting in shallow motions of his hips until Rin relaxed enough to let him have complete control of their pace.

"I'm going to send him a video, I think," Abduxuel said, looking at the last picture he'd taken.

Rin stilled under him, releasing Amaimon again despite the growl of irritation he got to stare back, seeing the intent in his eyes.

"Won't you two make some lovely sounds for him?"

He couldn't stop the moan at the thought, hips jerking until they met Abduxuel's.

The slivering of Abduxuel's pupils slashed an aching grin across his face as Rin gave his command.

"Send them."

* * *

"More top level exorcists are still needed despite another two kings on the Order's side."

It was almost cute, Mephisto thought, hiding a sneer, how his little pawns played at controlling kings.

But-

A vibration interrupted him from playing with the humans to look at the incoming message on his phone.

Abduxuel.

Mephisto shivered. Just seeing that name show up on his phone, knowing if he called, his twin aspect would answer, he didn't think he would ever tire of the concept.

"Sir Pheles, are we boring you?"

Shemihaza's waspish drawl had him flicking a sly smile towards the monitor that held her image.

"Just a message from one of those kings you're so pleased to have on the Order's side now."

Another vibration, Mephisto furrowed his brows, turning his attention to the phone again and opening the thread.

And nearly cracked the screen in his claws, air stopping in his lungs.

He would kill the three of them and dance in their _ashes_.

Rin's sweet face, lips parted to let the tip of his tongue out to trace away the red lines healing at Amaimon's hips, stared back at him from the screen.

He'd forgotten, Samael realized through a creeping haze, exactly how much of a menace Abduxuel could be.

The next image drew his gaze to it without his control.

His fangs extended so quickly they pierced his tongue.

Amaimon, one hand fisted into Rin's hair, pushing him further onto his length, the other hand wrapped in the fur of Rin's tail and _smirking_ into the camera.

And Abduxuel mid way through pressing into Rin with both clawed hands at his hips, holding hard enough to leave the beginnings of bruises.

Another vibration, Samael considered disintegrating his phone.

"Sir Pheles--Sir Pheles!"

Video, they'd sent a video.

"If we could get back to the matter at hand?"

He checked his phone was on silent and played the video.

Blood that had pooled in his mouth slipped out when he opened it to trail down his chin from the corners.

"Sir Pheles- _Samael_ , what is happening on that phone that you can't tear yourself away from."

Samael.

His head rose from the sight of Abduxuel thrusting into Rin in slow, teasing movements while Amaimon fucked Rin's mouth to stare at the worms trying to call his true name as if that would make their words have any more meaning.

"This meeting," he breathed, pocketing his phone without taking his eyes from Shemihaza's and noting the flinch at whatever the rest of the worms saw in him, "is over now."

Samael snapped, ending the calls and vanishing from the room.

* * *

Reality reformed around him as the heady scents of sex and his claims filled Samael's nose.

"I had a very important meeting, darlings," he said, allowing the endearment to come out on a soft hiss to three pairs of unapologetic eyes.

"Did you?" Abduxuel said with a languid roll of his hips that Rin met just as slowly. "And did you frighten the worms when you bit through your tongue?"

Humor danced in the green eyes that met him, and he could see Rin fighting a smile despite not stopping his deliberate pulls over Amaimon's length.

"It's good to remind them of what they're dealing with every so often," Samael didn't deny. Not always, but sometimes, the fear his true nature brought out in his pawns could benefit his plans. He savored those moments like the humans savored an expensive vintage.

"You should have found one for an appetizer." Abduxuel's blithe mention of the humans put a fascinating dilation of Rin's pupils in his eyes that made Samael wonder if he realized what those words _really_ implied.

Abduxuel came from an older time when they didn't have to play at being human, at being anything but what they were. It was only a matter of when, not if, that particular subject reared its head again.

Not this night, though. Samael wanted Rin as he was, confident, high on his demonic instincts, tempting him with every flex of his body.

They would have other games later.

Flexing his own vessel, Samael moved another foot closer, eyelids shuttering as he raised a hand.

"I think I'm owed some _recompense_ from the three of you." He snapped, dragging Gehenna from behind the curtain until it enveloped their aspects and surrounded them in darkness.

Time passed at his command, and delight at the way his claims glowed in the abyss made the coming pleasure that much sweeter.

Control wrested from him in the next heartbeat as confusion jolted him from his contentment.

"You work too hard, Samael. Why don't you allow me to unwind you a bit?"

Abduxuel's voice split the void around him, coming at once as if from all sides and right into the deepest corners of his mind.

Power warped again before he could respond and Samael had a second to recognize that he'd been strung up before stinging pain sent him arching in electric ecstasy.

"Ah!" A shout escaped him, almost a yelp, as his muscles tightened and tensed to escape the constant agony eating away at the sensitive tissues.

"Hang out a bit," Abduxuel laughed at his pun, flicking a claw to one of the rosaries he'd bound him in.

"You always did look divine," he breathed the last word into Samael's ear, tongue curling along the tip before he sunk his fangs in to elicit another cry.

His hands scrabbled and gripped at the holy beads winding in intricate knots, their shapes melting into him when he forced stillness on his vessel.

"Ngh," he grunted, head dropping as ragged panting sent his chest heaving, which only served to bring him more into contact with the rosaries in a vicious cycle.

A soft caress--completely at odds with the sharp pain eating at his nerves--brushed his cheek, wiping at the tears he'd produced without knowing.

It continued up to the ridge of his ear, tucking mussed strands of hair behind it in gentle corrections before coming to rest at the back of his skull.

"Samael," Abduxuel purred, tightening his claws around him and jerking his head up, "look at them, see how they watch us."

He was helpless to do anything but listen, glazed eyes focusing on where Amaimon and Rin writhed against each other, though their complete attention stayed on where Abduxuel held him bound.

"They _love_ seeing you like this," Abduxuel hissed to his ear, biting in a sharp sting of pain as Samael gasped, neck arching back and eyes shuttering.

"Let's give them a show, then, love," he said, finding his voice as Abduxuel traced his other hand down, down, down.

Aching and already hard, his length gave a throb, tail lashing with his anticipation. Claws scaped to his flushed skin, collecting the ruin the rosaries had made of him as Abduxuel rubbed in lazy figure-eights.

The maddening pattern kept going until Abduxuel made it to just over the base of his tail and pressed down into the sensitive nerve there.

"Please- _hah_ -please, love," Samael begged unabashedly, intent on giving the show he'd promised as he released a groan. Though it was only half an act, his tail straightening at the pressure that wouldn't let up before snapping to wind around the arm doing the tormenting.

"Patience," Abduxuel murmured, though he betrayed his words with the slivers his pupils had become and the way he'd opened his mouth to bare extended fangs in a jackal's grin.

Fingers let up their pressure only to wrap around his tail and squeeze a warning to behave. His hips jerked in abortive stutters, pre-cum pearling to join the mess slicking his skin that dripped, eaten by the void.

Pleasure and pain flowed in conflicting signals with every careless motion of Abduxuel's hand, leading him to his edge faster than he could keep up.

The hand left him, a frustrated whine loosing past his lips.

"Relax," Abduxuel said in a coo, moving so that he stood inches from Samael's face, "I'd like to enjoy a little blasphemy too, Samael."

Gesturing in a flip of his hand revealed a glass that shone in the dark, filled with a clear liquid he placed as water.

It hit him just as Abduxuel upended the glass and let the stream fall to his chest between his parted shirt.

Water sluiced down his front just as the hissing started, steam forming every inch the water traveled.

Red joined the water as it ate through Abduxuel's skin while he moaned, head tossed back.

"Have a drink, love." Samael's mouth dropped on automatic to Abduxuel's command, tongue meeting the blood and holy water where it streamed down his stomach.

Immediately, the water burned at every part it reached, a searing fire not unlike Rin's pouring down his throat like it would burn him straight from his vessel.

"You look so pretty accepting my offering," Abduxuel hissed as he lapped at the exposed trails the holy water left on his skin.

Broad sweeps of his tongue made a mess until he couldn't tell what was his own and what was Abduxuel staining his teeth and running down his chin

Under his actions, Abduxuel began to heal, holy water spent on both of them, so Samael let his fangs tear back into the new skin.

" _Greedy_." Abduxuel's curse had him smiling around the mouthful he'd claimed, peering up into the green eyes glowing to take up his entire vision.

Blinded to everything else, Samael worried at Abduxuel in an effort to receive more than his fair share.

He would _drown_ in his other half.

Abduxuel allowed him for a few blissful moments, then the hand at Samael's head ripped him free.

Before he could snarl at the force, lips claimed his, bruising as Abduxuel searched his mouth for the pieces he'd taken.

Samael gave them up gladly, the remnants of the holy water and each other passing through their kiss.

Around them, space trembled, gasps for air escaping in the scant distance that appeared between their lips.

With the hand not trying to crush them together, Abduxuel reached to grab his neglected length, pumping over him until his vision whited out and he came, cry swallowed down by the lips that wouldn't leave his.

"Mmh," Abduxuel sighed against him, mouthing at his slackened lips in a lazy kiss while Samael recovered in increments.

"Thank you, love, I think that's more than riled them up."

A last lick over the ridge of his cheek, and Abduxuel left.

At his annoyed growl, he turned back, a smile cracking across his bloodstained face. "When you can get yourself down from there, why don't you join us?"

Adding to his taunt, he raised the hand still coated in the trails of Samael's release to clean them off, wrapping his tongue to his long fingers.

Two pairs of gleaming eyes watched his departure from Samael's side.

Rin looked especially savage beneath Amaimon, panting through a twisted visage that hardly looked human anymore.

He'd already begun a warning growl as Abduxuel neared.

Samael's gaze wandered the possessive way Rin clung to Amaimon, claws dug into his arms, and trembled at the covetous actions.

Those same actions he'd watched Rin repress the entire last week--really, since Abduxuel's arrival--had come to a head, just as he'd known they would.

They'd seen the signs, Samael enjoying every moment Rin came to him boiling over with instincts he'd been completely unaware of.

Amaimon was spent sating his more violent urges, but even he hadn't been able to do more than take the edge off.

All because Rin saw Abduxuel moving in direct challenge to him with every flaunted display.

Samael wanted _desperately_ to see them clash.

Ached for it now, along with another ache, body spasming because the rosaries still tied him in place, still ate away nerve endings that danced under the unceasing pain.

He wouldn't free himself yet. Not before he saw the initial outcome he'd been waiting for, at least.

Shoving flipped Amaimon beneath Rin as Abduxuel drew dangerously close.

"Turning back on our deal, Rin?" Abduxuel said in a sly rumble, tail twitching at his back. "Or did you still want me at your mercy?"

" _Yes_ ," Rin hissed, though what he agreed to was up for debate.

Blue flickered in Rin's eyes, a presence welling up to suffocate them in the pocket of Gehenna they'd sequestered in.

Space met him, though it seemed so small in comparison.

Under Rin, Amaimon groaned, head dropping back to expose his throat as he arched, presenting himself to the greater power.

In his bonds, Samael couldn't help but do the same.

Then Rin left Amaimon with a snarl to launch himself at Abduxuel.

It wasn't a challenge, Abduxuel allowed himself to go down in a tangle of limbs. Laughter broke from his throat, echoing around Rin's contented huff at pinning him in place.

"You keep doing that," Rin grumbled, scowl in his voice as he glared into Abduxuel's unrepentant smile.

"It's a bad habit," he said in cheeky response. His hands were caught, but his tail was free, and he brought it to coil with Rin's. "But it got me right where I want to be."

At that, he rolled his hips to Rin's, sliding their tails together to bring a shudder from both their bodies.

"Why don't we finish our dance?" Abduxuel accompanied his suggestion with a slide of his hands over Rin's ass, guiding him into a rhythm over his still clothed hips.

Rin stared down at him, fire flickering in the dangerous gaze and hips rocking with Abduxuel's direction.

"Such a _beautiful_ creature you are." Accurate, but that had been a taunt, one Samael knew Rin wouldn't ignore.

He waited.

The danger surged with blue flames around Rin as he snarled and wrenched Abduxuel up, locking his claws in a cage around his neck.

"I'm not a _creature_ ," Rin hissed in a warping voice that sent his heart skittering in a primal fear reaction Abduxuel shared by the blown pupils in his irises.

"I'm _Rin_ _Okumura_." He captured Abduxuel in a kiss that was more bite than anything approaching gentle, a claim in all but the literal sense.

It seemed to consume them, Abduxuel melting to Rin in submission and going lax in his hold.

Finally, Rin satisfied himself with Abduxuel's compliance, pulling back after a last swipe of his tapered tongue along his fangs.

Tension ran between them, an impasse that lasted until Abduxuel made the first move. Flipping Rin on his back, Abduxuel snapped to shed the rest of his clothes, returning to the teasing motions of his hips to Rin’s.

“You are utterly one of a kind,” he purred to the column of Rin’s throat, nipping at the skin to bring bright red lines to the surface. “Allow me to make it up to you, Rin Okumura.”

So saying, Abduxuel reached down to Rin’s hardened length, already slick from their actions, though he ran his hand along it, toying with Rin before lining himself up.

Abduxuel had never been one for prolonging things, sinking down with a long groan to Rin, lips pressed to his throat as he bottomed out.

“How would you like me to apologize, Rin?” Throwing himself on Rin’s mercy? Samael wondered how Rin would proceed with such an invitation.

“Amaimon.” Rin’s call brought Samael to look at where he’d been left, finding him stroking himself, shameless, at the display put on for them with his clothes long vanished. The command broke him from his self-pleasure, interest flashing across his features as he perked up.

Claws found Abduxuel’s mussed curls and yanked him from the throat he’d been nosing at, Rin pulling him away and growling into his face. “I want you to shut him up, Amaimon.”

Samael inhaled a sharp breath, eyes widening along with Abduxuel’s as he realized what Rin was asking for.

Amaimon wasn’t so slow on the uptake, prowling across the space to kneel at Rin’s head. He traced a claw to the jaw Rin tilted to meet him, then his impassive expression broke into a wide smirk.

Length in hand, Amaimon watched with a heated gaze as Rin directed Abduxuel to take him in his mouth.

He’d had enough of watching.

Samael flexed his aspect against the holy bonds containing him, hearing them snap and fall to disappear beneath his feet.

“Mmh,” he hummed, rolling his neck as his vessel began healing the ruin the rosaries had made of it. Another step and he appeared behind Abduxuel, sinking down and stroking along his spine. “I believe I’m done hanging around.”

His fangs found their purchase at the back of Abduxuel’s neck, a stinging kiss as he mouthed his way over each individual vertebrae.

Abduxuel shuddered, breathing hard around Amaimon. Samael smiled at the trembling he could feel beneath his touch and brought his hands to Rins where they kept Abduxuel from moving.

Their tails still wound together, something Samael took the time to appreciate as he smoothed a hand over where they intertwined. Then he let his hands trail further down, spreading Abduxuel around Rin.

“I’m happy you’re both getting along now,” he said, nudging his head at Abduxuel’s entrance in a teasing slide. “This should make things easier in class, at least.”

Growling rumbled through three chests and Samael grinned at the way his torment built their frustration.

“Maybe,” he began a slow cant of his hips so that both Abduxuel and Rin would feel him rubbing along them, “I won’t cancel that little upcoming field trip after all, if you two can control yourselves the rest of this week.”

The future disaster and chaos from the joint field trip between the regular class Abduxuel taught, along with Lewin accompanying them, was something he’d debated allowing.

If it meant he’d get to enjoy another bout like this, then the fallout might even be worth it.

“Samael,” Amaimon muttered, enhancing his glower with a sharp thrust into Abduxuel’s mouth, “stop teasing.”

Encouragement came in the form of Rin and Abduxuel releasing their tails from each other to drag them in enticing twists over his thighs, an unspoken beseechment.

“Fine,” Samael said in a mock-huff, feigning insult as he gripped Abduxuel’s hips again and pressed in, “I only ever aim to please.”

Rin’s hands tightened under his, hissing at the delicious pressure as Samael slotted himself into place.

Heat enveloped him, inviting him to begin shallow thrusts that jerked Abduxuel forward onto Amaimon, who’d already given up waiting for them as he fucked Abduxuel’s mouth with total disregard for his comfort or ability to breathe.

The sight drew Samael to speed up, gaze locked on the flushed cheeks and spit-slicked lips as Abduxuel gave himself completely over to the forces tearing him apart.

Along him, Rin kept his own rhythm, hips rising to meet Abduxuel’s in a brutal pace that rocked through his body.

Samael panted, moving to match Rin, suddenly needing to see Abduxuel broken down, a mess, covered in their scents, their marks.

Utterly claimed.

Not by Rin, not yet, the last missing piece.

Rin’s claws dug furrows to Abduxuel’s thighs, having shifted to them and giving Samael purchase at his hips. Spiralling thoughts slipped through his mind rapid-fire, joining the sensations electrifying his nerves into one urge he acted on.

His claim welled up, three separate ones responding to him with the other halves until he overflowed, filled to bursting and a singular thought breaching the tide.

 _Mine_.

He sank himself deep into Abduxuel just as he bit down on his shoulder, releasing in heavy judders of his body as he gripped hard enough to leave bruises.

Abduxuel’s body arched, whine trying to force itself past Amaimon and caught in his chest before Amaimon came and he had to break off or choke. Samael bit deeper, watching through lowered lids as Amaimon slowed to a stop with a pleased growl at the way Abduxuel swallowed around him until he was spent.

A last stutter of Rin’s hips and he coated Abduxuel’s walls with his own release, slick heat joining Samael’s inside him as he groaned.

It was enough, Abduxuel tensed and came against Rin’s stomach in long trails as he squeezed around them, moving through it to steal the remaining pleasure. His tail lashed in erratic movements that battered Samael before stilling, sated.

Only the sounds of their heartbeats echoed in the void, breaths coming in slowing patterns as reality reasserted itself piece by piece.

Amaimon recovered first, pulling out in a short jerk and hand leaving Abduxuel’s hair to let him drop, though he didn’t get far with Samael still keeping him in place with his fangs.

“ _Haa_ ,” Abduxuel gasped a long exhale that came out ragged from his no-doubt raw windpipe after Amaimon’s less than gentle measures.

“That was exquisite!” he croaked, laughter pained.

A hand rose, fingers at Abduxuel’s jaw to direct him to Rin, whose reddened cheeks and sweat-soaked hair framed what Samael would call an exasperated frown as he growled, “You’re still talking. It wasn’t enough.”

Oh, wonderful. Samael unlatched his fangs from Abduxuel and dropped to nudge his forehead at his shoulder, laughing. “An impossible feat, Rin, though I would never discourage you from making repeat attempts.”

Without anything holding him up, Abduxuel lowered himself to Rin with a sinuous roll of his body and a rumbling purr. He let his tongue out to trace the fingers Rin kept at his jaw, though it looked less like the irritated grip it had been, softened to something soothing.

Heat flickered at the tips of Rin’s fingers, trailing in a light pattern that Samael knew would feel comforting over the healing ache there as Abduxuel tilted his head into the caress.

Sliding out of Abduxuel brought a flinch and a tightening of his features before Rin’s heated touch chased the pained wrinkles away, Abduxuel happily draping himself like a big cat on its favorite heat rock.

“I sense we’re not going to be moving any time soon,” Samael said as he eased himself down at their side, taking in the way Abduxuel’s face looked in tired pleasure, at the way Rin looked, eyes tracking the slow pattern he drew over Abduxuel.

Amaimon grunted his assent, burrowing closer to Rin’s other side where he’d apparently decided to spend the rest of however long they chose to stay.

“Although I have to put out several fires now that you pulled me from that meeting,” he drawled, “and I believe you missed your next class--the three of you, in-fact.”

Abduxuel shook with silent laughter at his reminder, eyes closed but a smile stretching over his face.

“You’re just as bad,” Rin grumbled, that look of irritation back, “You’re _both_ bad. Amaimon doesn’t do this to me.”

Truer words had never been spoken. Though Samael thought he saw a smug grin pull at Amaimon’s lips at being considered the least of Rin’s problems.

Before he could debate bringing up the many ways Amaimon made himself a menace, Abduxuel shifted.

He drew up, stilling Rin but not letting him take his hand away as he trapped it against his cheek where he nuzzled. Samael watched the question form in Rin, in the slow blink of his eyes, and the way Abduxuel inhaled before speaking.

“I would like to win you over. One of these long centuries.”

 _Yes_.

By the way Rin’s breath caught, at the even slower nod he gave, Samael thought that time would come sooner than later.

It gave him another light to bask in as he brought them all to his bed, wiped clean and settled beneath the covers to enjoy the remainder of their evening.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo boy, missed Mephisto’s bday by one day and was 9 days over my usual monthly update lol 
> 
> So many things and bonus content/easter eggs I figured I should point out for u guys ;D 
> 
> For instance! The entourage Abduxuel hangs with in Gehenna are in fact pulled from another fun series about demons so kudos if you guys recognized the guest appearances from Saiyuki Gaiden, Konzen (Sanzo) and Bosatsu Kanzeon. Highly recommend this series for that sweet, sweet demon goodness :D I figure demons, much like Mephisto with his many names, also get called multiple things by the humans who worship them. Kinda like Rinka and the wil o’ wisp being different names for Satan. So they got turned into the hare in the moon (the golden hare, which worked out PERFECTLY bc Sanzo is known for his stunning golden locks lmao) and the goddess of the moon, Chang’e respectively.
> 
> I was so happy when I remembered moon princess Kaguya and all that mythology bc lemme tell you it was hard trying to figure out what kinda demons are considered space kin. They kept giving me demons associated with stars, which is Lucifer’s territory and we can’t steal from him for Abdi lololol
> 
> On the other hand, I figure the ghost train is a fun thing for Mephisto and Abduxuel to share (being twin aspects), possibly Azazel too, for the spirits it ferries/eats on its way to Gehenna. It’s multi-purpose like that. (The cold hissy guys at the front entrance are just dementors bc this was before I realized I can look up moon-based mythology lmao)
> 
> Abduxuel’s tail is based off a manticore’s! Which is hilarious bc I didn’t realize manticores are literally called man-eaters when I decided that Abduxuel’s thing is that he’s an old fashioned demon who doesn’t see why eating humans isn’t kosher anymore, Samael, you’re ruining his fun :insert eye-roll here: 
> 
> And his minor form is a ferret, though originally it was an ermine (another nod to a favorite book series of mine, The Golden Compass/His Dark Materials lol), but I figured same difference and that way I can look up cute ferret videos and pics and pretend it’s Abdi having a good time XD
> 
> Also, I have like...2 whole other sides I wanted to get down for this, possibly a third bc suddenly the idea of writing Abdi/Lewin messing around in the storage closet is appealing to me. The other two were supposed to be a fun Abduxuel forgets he has to deal with heats and gets caught up in the moment whilst on a Vegas binge and Rin gets worried when he doesn’t get texts for a few days, takes Amaimon to check on him and gets to deal with pacifying a feral Abduxuel~ Annnnd the final one this chapter spawned is the field trip from hell, wherein Abduxuel is like some kinda horrible Miss Frizzle and Lewin is happy to join him on his nightmare field trips with his adorable students :D
> 
> (Uhhh there’s probably a lot of things I’m forgetting bc I finished this at 1 am so I’ll try to add it if I see it lol Let’s just pretend the spelling errors aren’t there for a week to give me time to catch them all.)
> 
> But I gotta save those for later bc it’s FINALLY time to get on to the next in my long ass list of wips lol Get ready for the Quarantine au I’ll be working on now ;D
> 
> Hope you guys enjoyed my bastard oc and that crazy ot4 scene bc that was real complicated to write XD Did everyone see that? Because I shall not be doing it again lmao

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Laybrinth au](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27699392) by [ink_quill_pen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ink_quill_pen/pseuds/ink_quill_pen)
  * [Forgiving a ferret](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27869034) by [ink_quill_pen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ink_quill_pen/pseuds/ink_quill_pen)




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